October 23, 2015

Airbnb Issues Apology After Tone-Deaf New Ads Debut in San Francisco

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After a series of ads posted throughout San Francisco this week sparked the ire of both city residents and the internet, Airbnb on Thursday issued a company-wide apology to its employees for what many have described as an over the top passive aggressive ad campaign.

CNET reports marketing chief Jonathan Mildenhall said in an email the ads were “fundamentally inconsistent” with the company’s ethos and told employees it would be working with the public organizations it “wronged to make this right.”

“Yesterday I heard from so many of you about how embarrassed and deeply disappointed you were in us,” CEO Brian Chesky also wrote. “You were right to feel this way.”

After aggressively engaging in a long legal battle to avoid paying the city’s 14 percent hotel tax, Airbnb was finally forced to shell out over $12 million in back taxes earlier this year. The ads, which debuted on Wednesday, featured messages directed towards various city agencies, including public libraries and the board of education, that offered suggestions for how each should use the money.

The messages immediately backfired:

The controversy comes two weeks before California voters will consider Proposition F, a ballot initiative that could significantly restrict the type of short-term rentals that Airbnb makes available in San Francisco.

In a Facebook post, an assistant professor at San Francisco University criticized the company for spending millions to fight the ballot measure. 

“I’m happy to hear that you paid your taxes this year. I did too! Isn’t it awesome?,” the post began. “However, had you donated that $8 million you spent fighting Proposition F directly to the public libraries you love so much, that could have made a bigger difference. Oh well. Hindsight is 20/20!”

The outrage also gave way to moments of levity, with internet users creating mock billboards to poke fun of Airbnb’s now-infamous marketing debacle:

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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