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It’s amazing how easy it is to spectacularly fail in 140 characters or less.

You’d have thought major brands and organizations with million dollar social media budgets would have figured that out by now. But if 2014 taught us anything, they haven’t. Face it, anyone can screw up, but when it happens to a corporate giant, everyone is watching.

Since our collective Internet memories are about as short as a Tweet or a status update, let’s revisit some of the more quirky (and painful) social screw ups of 2014. Most of these big brands would probably want us to forget their missteps, but they’re always a good reminder of how easy it is to totally blow it in just a few short sentences.

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>>No. 1: US Airways porn problem

US Airways

Buzzfeed

Let’s get beyond the questions of how the VERY NSFW uncensored version of this photo exists in the first place, and instead ask ourselves how it ended up on the US Airways official Twitter account. Back in April, a dissatisfied customer sent out a pretty boring complaint about a flight delay.

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Like any typical corporate Twitter account, US Airways responded a few times, trying to make things right. Eventually though, the graphic tweet above appeared along with their response. It couldn’t be deleted swiftly enough. It was shared thousands of times, got the airline trending on Twitter, and prompted, of course, an apology.

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The company eventually explained, according to Buzzfeed, that it was attempting to flag inappropriate content that was directed toward the airline on Twitter. In the process, the link to the image was copied and inadvertently placed in the tweeted response.

Lesson here? Always, always, always check your links before you tweet them.

>>No. 2: Cheesies’ “Ray Rice” deal?

Cheesies

Twitter

In September, as video surfaced of Ray Rice knocking out his wife in a Casino elevator, Lakeview eatery Cheesie’s Pub & Grub tweeted the above quip about its “Ray Rice” special being a “knock out deal.” It quickly raised eyebrows, and the restaurant quickly responded with a series of apologies, blaming the incident on a disgruntled employee.

What did we learn? Always change your account passwords, folks.

>>No. 3: Those aren’t fireworks, American Apparel

Challenger

Mashable

Not all social media screw ups happen on Twitter. On the Fourth of July, American Apparel posted the above photo to its Tumblr page with the caption “#smoke #clouds.” Sure, that’s what it technically is. But those #smoke #clouds are actually the aftermath of the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger explosion.

The company’s explanation? The company said it’s social media manager was born after the tragedy, and didn’t recognize the iconic image.

PROTIP: Always check the source of a photo before posting.

>>No. 4: Bad pizza brand! Bad!

DiGiorno

Adweek

What prompted the “million apologies” from, of all things, a pizza brand? Hashtag ignorance. In September, according to Adweek, a trending hashtag called #whyistayed was a way for victims of domestic violence to speak out about why they stayed in abusive relationships. However, DiGiorno’s official Twitter account didn’t really seem to get that, tweeting the following:

What did we learn, class? Never use a hashtag without knowing the context, first.

>>No. 5: There are no giraffes in Ghana

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Giraffe

Business Insider

In its report, Business Insider called the mishap “The first Twitter screw-up for a brand during the 2014 World Cup.” What a title, Delta Airlines! What happened? During a match between the United States and Ghana, the company Tweeted the images you see in the screenshot. Problem? The image of a giraffe that’s supposed to depict Ghana. Because there aren’t any giraffes in Ghana. The company faced quite a bit of backlash for its ignorance, and even more backlash for using the word “precious” in their apology.

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And what do we always do before tweeting? We check a map.

>>No. 6: Bill Cosby’s meme backfire

Cosby

NY Post

File this under “things did not go as planned.” In November, the social media team behind Bill Cosby’s twitter account had an idea. Let’s make beloved Bill Cosby a meme! That will be fun, right? Here’s what they had in mind:

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However, the allegations of rape from several women were already becoming part of the national conversation. So Twitter users had some other ideas, none of which were as light-hearted.

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Lesson? Never force a meme. It will backfire.

>>No. 7: The Patriots’ racist auto-tweet

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Pats

The Independent

The New England Patriots just wanted to thank their 1,000,000 Twitter followers, but probably ended up losing a few in the process. In November, anyone who retweeted the account got a personalized image of their Twitter handle photoshopped on the back of a jersey. Unfortunately the problem was “anyone.” A user with a racial slur in their name got a mention, and the racist image got quite a bit of attention. According to The Independent, the team later apologized and cited a faulty “filtering” system for not catching the slur.

Lesson: Don’t ever automate Twitter. Ever.