Social media is such a double edged sword—being able to share anything with followers means we can share anything with our followers—even manic meltdowns, social faux pas and cringe-worthy mistakes. Sometimes it’s best to just put down your phone and step away from the hashtags, a lesson learned harder for some than others. Here are five cases where the advice of a beloved BFF, family member or publicist probably should have been heeded. If you have a social media addiction or overshare tendency, take this as a fair warning: make sure you think before you tweet, unless you want to end up in some proverbial hot water.
Kanye West
Kanye West is the reigning king of social media meltdowns; the man just will not stop tweeting. He has had full out rants, fights and freak-outs on the social media platform and has no problem dissing fellow rappers, singers or celebs as he sees fit. He’s even called out the fashion industry, saying it's “sooooooo fake.” We could fill an entire article with his endless string of social media ravings, but one particularly noteworthy rant took place after he read a negative review of his Yeezy Season 3 fashion show. After MediaTakeOut.com called the collection a “sh*t show,” he responded by saying that the publication was trying to “keep dreamers down” and they “couldn’t say one thing positive knowing damn well you’d love to be on the YEEZY 350 list.” He added “always remember that you dissed the collection that changed the world.”
Marc Jacobs
It’s a little hard to narrow down the times that Marc Jacobs has been under media scrutiny for posting something inappropriate to social media. Maybe it was the time the designer accidentally posted a nudie to his Instagram account? Or maybe it was when an intern took to the brand’s official Twitter account to call CEO Robert Duffy a “tyrant”? For us, the most memorable moment had to be when the designer lashed out in an open letter on Instagram against a New York Times reporter for scrutinizing his sex life. He called her a “sick woman,” “sad” and suggested she wasn’t a “real writer”—it was pretty brutal. Thankfully this was one of the few social media rants that didn’t generate too much backlash for the company, in fact many fans applauded the designer for speaking out against the rumors.
Kenneth Cole
A designer having a public meltdown is never good. A designer trying to make a buck off political unrest is a PR disaster. Kenneth Cole has come under fire, not once, but twice for promoting his collection in response to major military action. In 2011, the designer wrote that the uprisings in Egypt (which were a revolt against the corruption of then President Hosni Mubarak) were due to news of his new collection. “Millions are in uproar in #Cairo. Rumor is they heard our new spring collection is now available online,” he tweeted. In 2013, with the beginning of military action in Syria, he tweeted (from his personal account) “’Boots on the ground’ or not, let's not forget about sandals, pumps and loafers. #Footwear,” a reference to Pentagon spokesman George Little’s commentary on the state of the Middle Eastern country. Needless to say he received a huge amount of backlash and has since apologized for his insensitive words.
Essena O'Neill
Model and Instagram star Essena O'Neill went on a total meltdown last year and basically quit social media, but not before spilling all the dirty little secrets of modeling. She talked about the insane amount of makeup, photoshop and filters that went into presenting her photos online and how it affected her self-esteem and outlook on life. “I was lost, with serious problems so beautifully hidden … If anything my social media addiction, perfectionist personality and low self-esteem made my career,” she said in an email to her followers after she deleted her accounts. “Over-sexualization, perfect food photos, perfect travel vlogs—it is textbook how I got famous. Sex sells, people listen to pretty blondes.” She received a ton of backlash from her fellow models (and was even accused of doing it as a publicity stunt), but her public breakdown garnered so much attention that she was the topic of conversation for weeks and even landed a book deal.
Cheryl Tiegs
Model Ashley Graham made headlines earlier this year as the first plus-sized model to be featured in the pages of Sports Illustrated. Most celebrated the model’s accomplishment, but former SI model Cheryl Tiegs told E! News “I don't like it that we're talking about full-figured women because we're glamorizing them, and your waist should be smaller than 35 [inches].” After an understandable backlash, the two models took to social media to hash out their issues. Tiegs tweeted: “To clarify re: bodyweight. Being anorexic/bulimic/overweight [are] all connected to health problems. I want all to be as healthy as they can.” But the damage was already done. Graham responded with an Instagram video of her workout saying “I am strong. I am powerful. I am bold. My body is capable to do more than I think I can. I will always push myself to greater heights. I respect the skin I am in. I work out because I love my body, not because I hate it.”
Courtney Love
In 2009, when Twitter was brand new and basically still the Wild West, Courtney Love took to the social media platform to blast designer Dawn Simorangkir. Simorangkir, founder of Boudoir Queen, a line of ’20s-inspired corsets and lingerie, says that the two began their confrontation when Love refused to pay her for several thousand dollars’ worth of clothing. Love tweeted she was a "drug-pushing prostitute with a history of assault and battery who lost custody of her own child," and that "she has received a VAST amount of money from me over 40,000 dollars and I do not make people famous and get raped TOO!” The designer sued her for defamation and they settled out of court for $430,000. Of course that didn’t stop Love from lashing out against the designer a second time on the Howard Stern Show a couple years later. Simorangkir sued again and the two settled for $350,000.
