Who knew stand mixers held such vehement political opinions?
During Wednesday night’s presidential debate, @KitchenAidUSA tweeted an insensitive remark about President Barack Obama’s grandmother to the brand’s 25,000 followers:
“Obamas gma even knew it was going 2 b bad! ‘She died 3 days b4 he became president’. #nbcpolitics”
Minutes later, the tweet was deleted and the brand apologized.
“Deepest apologies for an irresponsible tweet that is in no way a representation of the brand’s opinion. #nbcpolitics.”
Speaking with Mashable, KitchenAid spokeswoman Cynthia Soledad announced that the perpetrator of the errant tweet had been swiftly reprimanded.
“The tasteless joke in no way represents our values at KitchenAid, and that person won’t be tweeting for us anymore,” she said. “That said, I lead the KitchenAid brand, and I take responsibility for the whole team. I am deeply sorry to President Obama, his family, and the Twitter community for this careless error.”
According to Twitter’s reactions, disciplining the tweeter was the only thing the brand could do to appease its audience. The remark became as big a Twitter story as the debate itself.
“Time for @KitchenAidUSA to hire a new social media agency!! I did not know mixers can vote for president #debates2012,” @socialepicurean tweeted.
“@KitchenAidUSA Hopefully that asshat you have running your twitter feed is jobless tomorrow. Seriously what the actual fuck, man?” @antigone tweeted.
On the positive side, and timely to the debate, a position at KitchenAid is now open.
“One job was created tonight. RT @KitchenAidUSA It was carelessly sent in error by a member of our team who won’t be tweeting for us anymore,” @aurosan tweeted.
Correction: The original version of this story and its accompanying headline made the assumption that the Twitter user in question was fired. In fact, the KitchenAid spokesperson simply said “that person won’t be tweeting for us anymore.” We regret the error.
Photo via @KitchenAidUSA/Twitter