How to make friends and influence people

It turns out that self-righteousness martyrdom is not a quality we look for in our brands.

Airbnb is apologizing for a series of billboards it put up in San Francisco, designed to fight a ballot initiative that would limit short-term rentals. The billboards are intended to be witty, but instead many people find them whiny, churlish and condescending.

The ad pictured above prompted a succulent smackdown from one local supporter of public libraries.

Airbnb is a great concept and its marketing has been extremely savvy.  But this campaign was surprisingly tone-deaf.