Home Depot, the home improvement giant, is in some hot water after posting a racist tweet earlier this week, which has forced the company to apologize on Twitter.
The extremely offensive and racist tweet was posted on the Home Depot official Twitter account and has since been taken down, but that didn’t prevent the image to be circulated on social media creating a firestorm.
Said image features two African-American drummers with a third person in a gorilla mask in between them with a caption that reads: “Which drummer is not like the others?”
The controversial tweet was part of a College Game Day promotion on ESPN that went terribly wrong when the company Home Depot uses for their social media posted the offensive tweet.
Now, the apology is garnering criticism as well. People want to know which social media company Home Depot used, as it was stated they have fired the person who posted the tweet and the company responsible for it.
RT @OhMyGOFF Not sure what Home Depot has in the toolbox to fix this “@imfro Here’s a screenshot of @HomeDepot tweet pic.twitter.com/R1GmK5Iwv6″
— Jonathan Wall (@imfromraleigh) November 8, 2013
Home Depot fires worker and PR firm after last weekend’s racist tweet http://t.co/utyaPJiPua
— Daily Mail US (@DailyMailUS) November 8, 2013
It seems @HomeDepot ‘s socmed agency put out a wildly racist tweet, and they have spent the last 24 hours apologizing: http://t.co/uiCp7Gl95K
— Elaine Clisham (@eclisham) November 8, 2013
What’s really bothering me about the Home Depot post is that I can’t think of a team that has a gorilla as its mascot. Let me Google it.
— Johnell C. (@ms_JNYC) November 8, 2013
The general feeling is that there is no excuse for such a tweet to be posted in the first place and consequently, people are asking for Home Depot to disclose the name of the PR firm that lacked judgment in the controversial post.
The explanation from the company says:
We have zero tolerance for anything so stupid and offensive. Deeply sorry. We terminated agency and individual who posted it.
— The Home Depot (@HomeDepot) November 7, 2013
“We have zero tolerance for anything so stupid and offensive,” Stephen Holmes, spokesman for the Atlanta-based company said, adding the company is “closely” reviewing its social media guidelines to avoid something similar from happening again.
Allen Adamson, managing director of branding at Landor Associates, said the tweet is “the worst possible message Home Depot can send out (…) even if it gets attributed to stupidity.”
“In a Twitter world where everyone can see everything instantly I think you’ll see more rather than less of this because people tweet before they think,” Adamson says.
Whether Home Depot’s apologies will satisfy those who are enraged by the insensitive tweet, only time will tell, but maybe others can learn from their mistake and think before tweeting.
