Washingtonian magazine committed a marketing blunder this week when it launched a campaign selling t-shirts that read, “I’m Not A Tourist. I Live Here.” Social media users were quick to point out that the images featured not a single black person. The lack of diversity struck a nerve in a place known as Chocolate City that was once majority-black.

Dear @washingtonian,

There are TONS of black people who live in (and are from) Washington, DC. Generations of black people. So…what’s this? pic.twitter.com/zZYuKJrD0j

— Jason Reynolds (@JasonReynolds83) May 14, 2018

Washingtonian quickly removed the images and apologized, but the photos live on on social media–as do these other local marketing missteps that Twitter users deemed tone-deaf.  

1. A grocery chain store welcomes students back to the historically black Howard University with an ad featuring a white woman.

Giant Food won’t hear the end of this marketing fail from Howard students/ alum who are appalled…or confused. pic.twitter.com/NzJC6vdtJo

— Victoria L. Holmes (@ToriLHolmes) January 12, 2014

2. A football team with a name and mascot many find offensive to Native Americans observes a holiday with a complicated history for Native Americans.

From our family to yours, have a very safe and Happy #Thanksgiving. #HappyThanksgiving #HTTR pic.twitter.com/TZ0fBzbEm2

— Washington Redskins (@Redskins) November 27, 2014

3. A Whole Foods, a store many consider a harbinger of gentrification, uses a phrase that hearkens back to pre-gentrified D.C. to sell expensive chocolate. 

#WholeFoods, H St. DC …

This is what the conqueror does.

Take over a culture & a people, and then — subjugation complete and silence assured — incorporate “authenticating” remnants of that culture & lore into cutesy signs at fashionably upscale stores. pic.twitter.com/KYk1La3RhZ

— Todd Kliman (@toddkliman) November 19, 2017

4. A majority-black county welcomes visitors with a picture of a white family.

This metro ad for Prince George’s County is not the Prince George’s County that I’m familiar with. #DMV pic.twitter.com/EwjihLiKgF

— Randall M (@ranpuba) December 13, 2017

5. Ads for WMATA imply men only want to talk about sports and women only want to talk about shoes.

Double take: Is that casual sexism on the walls of U St. Metro? @wmata pic.twitter.com/9Ocl1v0Y94

— Ruth Tam (@ruthetam) June 4, 2014

Double take #2: Not-so-casual sexism on U St. Metro @wmata pic.twitter.com/KTkL5tbSwY

— Ruth Tam (@ruthetam) June 4, 2014

We’ll discuss these, and more, on the Kojo Show on Thursday May 17, when we look at how marketers and advertisers navigate the fault lines of race and class in our changing region. What other marketing missteps have you seen?