Some questions present themselves, such as,
How much trust should we place in the management of a company that can’t staff and oversee its social media accounts better than this?
Is mere firing sufficient punishment for an employee who would post those? Such an egregious level of betrayal of an employer should carry a lifetime brand, like the scarlet letter.
What could someone guilty of such conduct do to redeem himself?
Ford’s headquarters are in Detroit, an area with a large Arab-American population with strong pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel sentiments. You would think that this incident would be sufficiently predictable that special care would be taken to avoid it. Clearly, that didn’t happen. The incident is also magnified because of the ugly legacy of the company’s anti-Semitic founder, Henry Ford, who among other things promoted the notorious “Protocols of the Elders of Zion.”
Henry’s company’s apology was about as inept as one would expect from one that allowed this to occur: “Our X account was briefly compromised and the previous three posts were not authorized or posted by Ford,” a spokesperson said. “We are investigating the issue, and apologize for any confusion caused.”
Ford apologizes for the “confusion”?
Ethics Alarms 
Some years back, my all-time favorite tweet was published. It came from Chrysler Motors (which indicates how long ago this was), and read:
“I find it ironic that Detroit is known as the Motor City, and yet nobody here knows how to fucking drive.”
So what happened? Chrysler had outsourced its social media to a social media marketing company. The account flunkie who wrote the tweet meant to send it to his own account, but accidentally posted it on Chrysler’s.
The agency fired the account flunkie. Twenty-four hours later, Chrysler fired the agency. As it should be.
Dollars to donuts something similar happened here: an outsourced campaign with inadequate supervision.
At least the Chrysler story is funny. This is not.
I hope you appreciate my diligence in always correcting your screen name to “Arthur in Maine” from ‘repstat” wherever that came from. You can’t imagine how hard I have to fight the temptation to re-name you “Pookie” or “Squishface” or “Napoleon the 14th.”
I do appreciate it. Then again, it is not my fault. Nor is it yours.
But “Pookie?” “Squishface?” All I ever did to you was put you on the air a few times and buy you a pleasant lunch. 😉
Yeah, but what have you done for me lately? Actually, “Pookie” is a term of endearment in my family, and “Squishface” was my revue troupe’s nickname for me after college. And I have always admired Napoleon the 14th‘s only hit recording, which I’m sure is on the tip of your tongue…
HeHe, HaHa
What is the make of most of those pickup trucks the terrrorist ride in? Maybe this is a Ford sales pitch?
I think Toyotas are the small pickup of choice among Middle Eastern guerrillas. I think once a machine gun has been mounted from the bed and over the cab, they are called “technicals.” I have no idea where that term came from.
Maybe the guy who posted these was referring to the Ford F-150 Lightening the guy used in New Orleans. If so, that’s nasty. Of course, these guys are nasty.
When NGO aid agencies went into Somalia in the 1990s under the auspices of the UN, they were not allowed to bring their own security forces, so they got ‘technical assistance grants’ from the UN to hire indigenous guards and drivers in-country. Eventually, a ‘technical’ came to mean a contracted vehicle owned by a security company, and then eventually to mean any commercial truck (often a Toyota Hilux) with a heavy machine gun mounted in the bed.
Ahah! Thanks Jim. Technical assistance indeed. I think it’s fair to say the UN specializes in unintended consequences.
d-dunh, kssshhhh!! deacondan will be here all week…I hope…
I can’t imagine Ford ever penetrating that market. Toyota/Hilux is definitely the truck of choice in the third world. They must be pretty rugged and easy to keep running. We see old ones from California being towed down the interstate to Mexico to begin their second lives, regardless of condition.
Among many of the serious off-roaders here in my neck of the southern Appalachians, the Toyota 4WD pickup is pretty much the gold standard. One of my neighbors had a Toyota truck set up for severe off-road use, and his tailgate was lettered “Jeep Recovery Unit.” A friend who does Search and Rescue work with tracking dogs uses a Toyota truck with over 500K miles on it. He says he’s going to have it bronzed when it finally dies.
Ford hasn’t been an American-focused brand for awhile. Starting in the early 2000’s, the “One Ford’ initiative was used to give the best products to Europe and Australia and give inferior products for the US. When US customers asked for a new Ranger, the company said ‘One Ford’. When they said, “Why can’t we have the smaller pickup the Australians have, Ford said “That is not for the US market”. Whether it was 6-speed manual for the rest of the world and a 5-speed for the US or anything else, the Europe-focus of new Ford was clear. There is a lot of antisemitism and Anti-Israeli sentiment in Europe. I wouldn’t completely discount the idea that some Ford personnel approved this.