Many Americans remember President Obama touching their hearts during the 2012 Presidential Debate when he spoke of his grandma, who died three days before he was elected.
“You know, my grandmother – some of you know – helped to raise me. My grandfather died a while back. My grandmother died three days before I was elected president. And she was fiercely independent. She worked her way up, only had a high school education, started as a secretary, ended up being the vice president of a local bank.”
However, the appliance brand KitchenAid posted an insulting tweet during the debate which read:
“Obamas gma [sic] even knew it was going 2 b bad! She died 3 days b4 he became president”.
The tweet was in response to Obama’s remarks about his grandmother, Madelyn Lee Payne Dunham, in which he said:
The company was quick to remove the tweet , but the tweet not only went to the company’s 25,000 followers, but also included a hashtag making it part of NBC News’ social debate conversation. As reported by YahooNews,
“Many quickly retweeted the comment, while others replied with scathing remarks.
“I love how people are going 4 @KitchenAidUSA ‘s throats. Now watch as the Breville sales increase.” — AshLemonade, @Ashlemonade
“Never, ever, mix brand with personal. @KitchenAid is learning the hard way during their last tweet.” — Kate-Madonna Hindes, @girlmeetsgeek
KitchenAid, owned by Whirlpool Corp., immediately went into spin control by offering apologies on Twitter and other social networks. From its Facebook page:
“Hello, everyone. My name is Cynthia Soledad, and I am the head of the KitchenAid brand. I would like to personally apologize to President Barack Obama, his family and everyone on Twitter for the offensive tweet sent earlier. It was carelessly sent in error by a member of our Twitter team who, needless to say, won’t be tweeting for us anymore. That said, I take full responsibility for my team. Thank you for hearing me out.”
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