In December 2015 and early January 2016, @Crocs focused on getting their shoes under the tree and drumming up interest in new iterations: high heel Crocs, winter boot Crocs, suede Crocs. Crocs has tried to rebrand itself as stylish for its 57,000+ followers.

It was even featured in a student’s art project back in December, which @Crocs happily retweeted.

The embattled clog conglomerate was making inroads in the worlds of art and fashion, so why not go one step further and reach out to an avante-garde legend?

Warning Signs

About 5 hours before Crocs posted its fatal tweet on January 11, Madonna shared her grief with her Twitter followers and included a hashtag for her latest album.

The series of tweets immediately drew hostile responses. Madonna, herself boundary-pushing artist, angered Bowie fans.

Though most comments were focused on Bowie, some followers complained that Madonna was using his death to promote her album. Including the hashtag, critics said, was opportunistic.

This might have acted as a warning to brands contemplating tweeting about Bowie’s death and their products at the same time, but @Crocs doesn’t follow Madonna.

They’ve Made a Huge Mistake

At 10:43 AM on the day after David Bowie died, @Crocs tweeted the following:

The David Bowie tribute, even if it were well-intentioned, did not come across that way. It was @Crocs’ most retweeted tweet in January, but for all the wrong reasons. The “tribute” was perceived as insincere because it included a shot of the brand’s products, and seemed to imply that Bowie inspired Crocs.

Bowie fans were horrified: Bowie would not live on forever as a plastic clog. Crocs, fans ranted on Twitter, are not the artist’s legacy.

@Crocs was inundated with angry comments and mentions from articles about the bad tweet. They deleted the offending tweet within 30 minutes.

Crocs was punished more severely than Madonna for its misstep: Macleans, The Wrap, Mashable, and others blasted the brand. Alex Shepphard began his write-up for New Republic as follows: “Crocs are bad shoes and this is a bad tweet.”

Plastic Meltdown

The Bowie tweet caused a temporary spike in engagement for @Crocs: the press around the tweet was quite possibly the most press the account has ever gotten. As shown below, the percentage of its followers who engaged increased on January 11. Could the mistake actually give the brand a boost on Twitter?