Public Relations for Wendy’s Social Media Team

Yesterday, I came across this article, Wendy’s Twitter account still has (fresh, never frozen) beef with the world, on Mashable and had to check it out.
If you haven’t heard (or seen), basically Wendy’s social media team has been “empowered” on Twitter. As you might know, I teach social media to our clients and also to students at Arizona State University. I consider myself pretty “liberal” when it comes to using social media and typically when talking to clients I encourage them to empower their team members with posting on social media. But there should be rules that come with the empowerment. Such as no swearing, being respectful and not posting anything inappropriate.
It looks like Wendy’s executive team did indeed empower their team but forgot the rules. While the team isn’t swearing they are certainly not being respectful and I would say some of the posts are inappropriate. Particularly when putting down the competition, which I don’t think is ever appropriate.
What are your thoughts about this new social side of Wendy’s?