Hot on the heels of what is deemed to be some of the biggest hacking stories (read: The Fappening, Sony Pictures) within a year, another brand has come face-to-face with a similar form of intrusion. Perhaps not comparable in terms of magnitude but it’s hacking all the same.
With a wide range of art products under their umbrella such as chalk, crayon, colouring pencils, markers, paints, and modelling clay under their umbrella, Crayola has always been a popular parents’ choice as well as kids’ choice brand. So popular that the company is synonymous with childlike innocence and all Crayola-branded products are marketed as nontoxic and safe for use by children.
However, earlier this week, their official Facebook page was given an unexpected NSFW (Not Safe For Work) paint job.
A bunch of hackers managed to smuggle not-so-child-friendly images ranging from sexual innuendos to pornographic cartoons into their page, including one image that “imagined” what Disney cartoons might look like “If Disney Was For Adults”. Obviously, the lewd images weren’t for the colouring book crowd, if you know what we mean:
Uhm, a bit too early to be teaching children about “the birds and the bees” when they can barely grasp a crayon properly, no?
Luckily, the company was quick to act on it. Upon finding that hackers had infiltrated their page, Crayola quickly scrubbed their feed clean and posted up an apology to their 2.4 million Facebook fans. “Our sincere apologies to our Facebook community for the inappropriate and offensive posts you may have seen here today. Please be assured the official Crayola page has been restored. We can’t thank our fans enough for the feedback and support we received while working to resolve the issue … you truly are the best and we look forward to an exciting and creative 2015!,” the crayon-maker wrote.
The company also quickly took to Twitter to apologise:
We’re aware of the situation on our official FB page, which was hacked today, and making every effort to stop the unauthorized posts.
— Crayola (@Crayola) January 11, 2015
We don’t condone the inappropriate & offensive content being posted to the fraudulent Crayola FB page & sincerely apologize to our fans.
— Crayola (@Crayola) January 12, 2015
Phew, thank goodness for quick action on their part and that all is fine and well right now.