The L.A. Kings handed its Twitter account over to a local morning show host, who ended up having to apologize for his posts Tuesday evening.
Kevin Ryder is co-host of L.A. radio station KROQ’s Kevin and Bean show. He took over the Kings’s Twitter page as a promotion during its playoff matchup against the San Jose Sharks. It’s not uncommon for sports brands to have big names tweet from their accounts from time to time, but here the stunt went about as poorly as possible for both parties.
As expected of a morning show host who makes his name on testing listeners’ limits, Ryder’s tweets from the Kings account were full of attitude. But this one had Twitter buzzing in all the wrong ways:
The post was deleted soon after but not before Deadspin and other blogs picked up the story Tuesday night. The Kings also posted this apology soon after:
We apologize for the tweets that came from a guest of our organization. They were inappropriate and do not reflect the LA Kings.
— LA Kings (@LAKings) May 22, 2013
But that wasn’t the extent of the drama Ryder caused for the Kings. When the team announced he would be taking over the account, a fan named Gena Mazzeo responded that she was not a fan of his work, was disappointed in the promotion and would unfollow the team during Ryder’s reign.
Ryder’s first tweet from the Kings account (below) then publicly outed Mazzeo for her complaints. This, somewhat predictably, led to a small portion of Kings fans sending Mazzeo angry tweets.
I’ll let @genamazzeo introduce me: twitter.com/kingestkong/st… – @thekevinryder
— LA Kings (@LAKings) May 22, 2013
Ryder apologized as well on Tuesday via his own Twitter account. He also took the media to task for reporting on his tweets:
(1 of 2) My apology. I made a poor choice in the wording of my tweet. I wish I had used different words. If you were hurt by me, I’m sorry.
— Kevin Ryder(@thekevinryder) May 22, 2013
(2 of 2) I get angry when groups like Deadspin see it as kindling to make a fire for themselves. That’s worse than my choice of words.
— Kevin Ryder(@thekevinryder) May 22, 2013
The backlash to the Kings’s promotion with Ryder has a couple main takeaways. For one, it underscores the danger of handing over the reins of a major brand’s online image to someone whose actions you can’t control.
It also shows there’s a fine line between having an endearingly sassy attitude online and being offensive. During last season’s Stanley Cup run, the Kings became a hit on Twitter for talking trash to opponents, cracking jokes and generally ignoring the typical sports social media blueprint. So, in some ways, having Ryder take over the account fit that image.
Funnily enough, however, it seems the Kings should have trusted its intuition before giving Ryder the keys. Here’s their original tweet announcing the takeover:
.@thekevinryder is taking over @lakings for the 2nd period…. we’ve made a huge mistake.
— LA Kings (@LAKings) May 22, 2013
A huge mistake indeed.
Do you think the Kings are at fault here, or did people overreact? Give us your take in the comments.
Image via Kevin Winter/Getty Images
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