The Victorian Taxi Association has apologised for a new public relations disaster after using Remembrance Day to promote its Your Taxis campaign, fresh from the ill-fated launch of its social media initiative calling for public feedback on Monday.
The Your Taxis campaign has been encouraging customers to share feedback about using Victorian taxis on social media in return for prizes, including free taxi rides for a year.
The response was overwhelmingly negative, with customers hijacking the #YourTaxis hashtag to share experiences of being abused, sexually assaulted and harassed by drivers.
On Wednesday evening the @YourTaxis account drew the ire of social media users after linking Remembrance Day (which was misspelled) with the campaign.
.@YourTaxis just keeps digging that grave the entire cab industry will inevitably end up in. #YourTaxis pic.twitter.com/hoe2YvJkqc
— Jamie Oliver-Twist (@Jamus__) November 11, 2015
@yourtaxis Top effort trying to hijack #RemembranceDay... I eagerly await your poorly themed #AnzacDay tweet next year
— Chad Ess Squire (@ChadPD) November 11, 2015
Lest We Forget spellcheck:Remembrance Day @yourtaxis. And using it in your PR campaign is not cool. #YourTaxis https://t.co/RkFsNZvCRx
— Paul Scott (@paul_scott_) November 11, 2015
The tweet was subsequently deleted. “We’ve deleted an inappropriate tweet,” the @yourtaxis account said. “We are reviewing our processes and will be issuing a media statement soon.”
In the statement, the association apologised “unreservedly for a tweet sent on behalf of the YourTaxis campaign that it does not believe displayed the appropriate level of respect to Australian servicemen and women and their families.
“The tweet was sent on the official @yourtaxis Twitter handle by an external supplier, but the association accepts that it should have been reviewed and vetoed by its own staff.”
The association’s chief executive, David Samuel, said the taxis industry had the utmost respect for servicemen and women and their families.
“The decision to use an important and significant day like Remembrance Day in any form of marketing was ill-advised, inappropriate and completely unacceptable,” he said.
“We apologise to all servicemen and women, their families and the wider community for a mistake that should never have happened.”
.@victaxis It’s ‘Remembrance’, not ‘Rememberence’. If you can’t even get that right, there’s no hope for you.
— Mark Colvin (@Colvinius) November 11, 2015
.@CPtraveller The #RemembranceDay tweet was a disaster, as was the spelling of "Remembrance". #YourTaxis @mumbrella pic.twitter.com/BIf4M9diaf
— Steve Williams (@randomswill) November 11, 2015
Later the @yourtaxis account tweeted: “We are trying so hard to get this right and we are so sorry for our mistakes today.”
A spokeswoman for the association said discussions would be held on Thursday with the marketing agency behind the campaign about their future involvement with the association.
