meizitangzisu

Big internet marketing mistakes seem extremely popular these days. In late August, Spanish clothing and accessories retailer got into warm water over what appeared to be a yellow Jewish Zi Xiu Tang star on the kid's striped pajama top that appeared as if prison gear. Then there was Urban Outfitters using the Kent State sweatshirt that looked like it sported bullet holes and blood stains.

Facing evidence of what angered people, at least they were able to cleanly remove the offending items. It doesn't make things all better, but it is an essential first step. If perhaps Walmart had learned that lesson.

The company just gone through a one-day rollercoaster with marketing stomachs likely still heaving. It all began with Walmart's Costume. Someone noticed another subsection around the company's website: Fat Girl Costumes, as the blog Jezebel reported.

Which started the very-bad-not-so-good day for Walmart's marketing department. Even as the story was hitting online media and complaints were landing within the company's social media accounts--the term "fat girl costumes" apparently hit the top 10 of Twitter trends--things moved slowed at Walmart. Jezebel noted that by 11:15 am eastern, there was still a fat girl costumes section, however, there were no items in it.

Well, at least things couldn't worsen, could they. Uh, actually, yes, they might. I had been asked by another editor to pay for the storyline (not the marketing and business implications) the same afternoon. And when I looked, body fat girl costumes section was replaced by "Women's Full figured Halloween outfits." However, towards the top of the page was a new banner that read: "Make it a monstrously big Halloween for less."

Really, did no one possess a lick of good sense? An expression like this on the plus-size targeted site could be bad enough. Following the nonsense earlier in the day, it's an outrageously dumb oversight that, by 4:30 pm on Monday, was still being visible.

Walmart apologized for that slight, according to Bloomberg Businessweek. "This never should have been in our website in the first place," a spokesperson said excitedly. "It's unacceptable that it appeared, and that we apologize."

But an apology that has such an Zi Xiu Tang Bee Pollen unfortunate fix is emptier than no apology whatsoever. Here's a simple rule when ever your organization plants its collective foot deep into the muck: Find out what happened and ensure you follow-up and also look at the fix. Don't merely trust whatever someone happens to let you know. See what your clients see. Your reputation is at risk, and it's too easy to slip from bad to worse.