A US fashion retailer called Celeb Boutique have been forced to apologise after a tasteless tweet landed them in hot water. After the devastating shooting at The Dark Knight Rises screening in Aurora, Colorado, “Aurora” was trending on Twitter and with one tweet the fashion house appeared to be taking advantage of the strong social media activity regarding the tragedy by tweeting: “#Aurora is trending, clearly about our Kim K inspired #Aurora dress” with a wink symbol:
Nothing is more disgusting than using human tragedy as a way to leverage a brand. The Twitter community immediately responded to Celeb Boutique’s terrible misuse of the “Auroura” hashtag with an onslaught of furious responses. The brand subsequently apologised claiming the tweet was just a misunderstanding; the result of an external Public Relations error:
If the company’s explanation is genuine it makes for a good cautionary tale about outsourcing social media to an international spam bot.
Words by Jacquie Lennon
Via Styleite
