Clorox has become the latest in a long line of companies to say something dumb on Twitter. It won’t be the last.
Looking to piggyback on all the chatter surrounding the new Apple emojis, which made their debut earlier this week, Clorox sent out a tweet with an image of a Clorox bottle composed entirely of existing emojis.
“New emojis are alright, but where’s the bleach?” it read.
In case you’re not caught up on the latest emoji news, the thing about the new emojis is that they contain a more racially diverse set of faces.
Clorox has deleted this controversial tweet. Is it racially insensitive or just weird? pic.twitter.com/OLDLnJ3222
— AJ+ (@ajplus) April 9, 2015
Cue the outrage:
@Clorox you guys couldn't possibly think that tweet would be a good idea.
— electric areola (@QueenTalibah) April 8, 2015
Intern: they released new racially diverse emoji set
Clorox Brand Mgr: do a tweet that abt that and bleach, our chemical that removes color
— the Memenendez Bros (@trillballins) April 8, 2015
@Clorox thanks for telling me which bleach not to spend my hard earned blk bucks on
— la vida broke-ah (@1014yup) April 9, 2015
Clorox has since removed the tweet and apologized, saying it wishes it “could bleach away that last tweet.”
Wish we could bleach away our last tweet. Didn't mean to offend – it was meant to be about all the emojis that could use a clean up.
— Clorox (@Clorox) April 9, 2015
You know, toilets, sinks, tubs, wine, etc.
There are two sides to this, both of which are maddening and ridiculous. On one hand you have Clorox – more specifically whoever runs Clorox’s social media presence. When your job is to run a large company’s social media, I’d like to think you’d be a little less myopic. That seems like an important trait of a social media manager.
You have to be able to step back, look at the big picture, and see how a tweet or Facebook post could be misconstrued. Let’s call it the ooooooooh, I see principle. Or maybe the duuuuuude, c’mon rule.
How could that tweet actually make it out?
On the other hand, you have the social media outrage machine.
You really think Clorox was making a racist joke? You honestly believe that whoever runs Clorox’s social media accounts thought to themselves hey, I’m going to black people bleach their skin – but you know, in a haha type of way!
Lessons learned – 1.) hire a better social media manager and 2.) be a little more selective when it comes to where you sling your outrage. Save it for the intentionally racist garbage spewed out across the internet on a daily basis. There’s plenty.
Now, let’s all focus on this truly offensive thing Clorox posted this week…
RT with #sweeps & #hassleoff for a chance to win great prizes! More details at http://t.co/apuv9QnRxL https://t.co/9u9jPJJ1qM
— Clorox (@Clorox) April 6, 2015
Image via Clorox, Twitter