The head of U.S.-based appliance company KitchenAid surely missed much of the presidential debate Wednesday night, forced to do damage control after a tweet published on the brand’s official account contained a disparaging remark about President Obama’s late grandmother.
After Obama mentioned his grandmother, who helped raise him and died just days before the 2008 election, @KitchenAidUSA sent the following message to its 25,000 followers — now deleted, but widely preserved in hundreds of retweets.
Corrin Foster @corrinrenee Easy there. RT: @KitchenAidUSA: Obamas gma even knew it was going 2 b bad! 'She died 3 days b4 he became president'. #nbcpolitics
3 Oct 12
The tweet sparked a massive backlash, and KitchenAid swiftly issued an apology tweet:
KitchenAid @KitchenAidUSA Deepest apologies for an irresponsible tweet that is in no way a representation of the brand's opinion. #nbcpolitics
3 Oct 12
Cynthia Soledad, KitchenAid’s senior director of branding, then took control of the KitchenAid account to issue a follow-up tweet that sought to “personally apologize” to the President and his family, as well as to “everyone on Twitter” for the “offensive tweet.”
In an email to tech website Mashable, Soledad explained that an employee had intended to tweet the message through a personal account, but mistakenly broadcast it via the corporate handle.
KitchenAid @KitchenAidUSA It was carelessly sent in error by a member of our Twitter team who, needless to say, won't be tweeting for us anymore.
4 Oct 12
Read more:
http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/10/05/...#ixzz28YqErVME