It’s not uncommon for companies to make social media gaffes and they tend to be quite embarrassing. Case in point, Uber tried to wish its followers a happy Puerto Rican Flag Day over the weekend. There was only one problem with the image it shared. The image didn’t show the Puerto Rican flag. It showed the flag of a completely different country.
Users on Twitter were quick to point out the mistake to the company, that it was trying to congratulate Puerto Rico with an image of the Cuban flag.
If that wasn’t embarrassing enough, the image’s description on Shutterstock explicitly mentioned that it was the Cuban flag. “View on the window with the Cuban flag” is the description of that image on Shutterstock. Not that hard to miss now, is it?
The wrong image was tweeted by Uber Puerto Rico and also shared on a Facebook post. Both have since been deleted by the company as word of this social media gaffe spread.
While the Cuban and Puerto Rican flags do have similarities in that both are red, white, and blue. Both also have a star and stripes. However, this could have easily been avoided if the person responsible for this post had just read the Shutterstock description carefully.
Uber has since apologized for the gaffe. “The flag was mistakenly posted and removed as soon as we realized the mistake. We are very sorry for this human error that occurred today. Our deepest apologies to the people of Puerto Rico. We reaffirm our commitment to the Island and ensure that this situation will not happen again,” it said.
Ay @Uber!!! Trying to congratulate Puerto Rico, using the Cuban flag. Even in Shutter stock says “View on the window with the Cuban flag“ #fail pic.twitter.com/xW0CZFyAJT
— lechancle (@lechancle) December 22, 2017
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