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  • Justine Sacco Apologizes for Ugly AIDS Tweet

    Justine Sacco was a very different woman when she boarded her fated flight to South Africa last week. By the time she landed, however, she was deemed a pariah because of an insensitive (and incredibly stupid) remark she made on Twitter. Now Sacco has apologized for her ugly tweet about Africa and AIDS. However it’s very clearly a case of way too little and way too late.

    Sacco apologized via a statement, saying she is sorry “for being insensitive to this crisis — which does not discriminate by race, gender or sexual orientation, but which terrifies us all uniformly — and to the millions of people living with the virus, I am ashamed.”

    A native of South Africa, she apologized to the people there, too.

    “I am very sorry for the pain I caused,” she wrote.

    The Twitter world doesn’t seem the least bit impressed.

    Of course Justine Sacco lost her job as PR director of corporate communication for IAC. The company issued its own statement following her firing.

    “The offensive comment does not reflect the views and values of IAC. We take this issue very seriously, and we have parted ways with the employee in question,” a spokesman said. “There is no excuse for the hateful statements that have been made and we condemn them unequivocally,” he said. “We hope, however, that time and action, and the forgiving human spirit, will not result in the wholesale condemnation of an individual who we have otherwise known to be a decent person at core.”

    It seems public humiliation will follow Justine for a long time now–and rightly so. It will be very interesting to see how long it takes for a ruthless corporate giant to scoop her up. Do you think there’s one out there that will do so at such an exorbitant PR cost?

    What’s your take on Justine Sacco’s apology? Sincere? A case of complete embarrassment? Do you think her reputation will ever live this one down?

    Image via Twitter

  • Justine Sacco: Yet Another Immature, Stupid, Racist Tweet

    Justine Sacco’s tweet on Friday was not just racist, but sadly very immature for someone who is supposed to be a “public relations professional”.

    Sacco is PR director of corporate communication for IAC.  She sparked outrage in the social media world after she tweeted Friday, “Going to Africa. Hope I don’t get AIDS. Just kidding. I’m white!’

    The chief PR officer, who represents brands like OKCupid, Vimeo, Tinder, and ironically, Blackpeoplemeet.com is said to have made the tweet from London shortly before departing to South Africa. Apparently, she was unaware of the firestorm she created while on her 12-hour flight.

    By the time she landed in Cape Town, her post had been retweeted about 3000 times. She then promptly deleted her entire Twitter account, but the damage was already done. Her employer later issued a statement that blasted her tweet as “outrageous” and “offensive”.

    “This is an outrageous, offensive comment that does not reflect the views and values of IAC,” read the statement.  IAC, which is owned by Media tycoon Barry Diller, also said it had been unable to reach Sacco, “Unfortunately, the employee in question is unreachable on an international flight, but this is a very serious matter and we are taking appropriate action.”

    One bitter Twitter user went as far as creating a domain name, justinesacco.com that links a coalition of charities that assist Sub-Saharan Africa.

    Sacco is most likely to receive a hostile landing and stay in Africa. Her arrival in Africa was anticipated shortly after the tweet went viral, and made the #HasJustineLandedYet hashtag a popular trending topic.  One twitter user, @Zac_ R said he went to the airport just to see who Sacco was and take photos of her. Twitter user John Becker wrote in response: “’Are you even real?!? This is utterly ghastly on so many levels.”

     

     

    This is not the first time Justine Sacco has made offensive tweets, thus removing the likelihood that her Twitter account was hacked.  In January 2013, she tweeted: “I can’t be fired for things I say while intoxicated right?”

    You most certainly can: This tweet Sacco wrote in January may have been a self fulfilling prophecy

    Another tweet she posted in February 2012 read: “I had a sex dream about an autistic kid last night.”

    Images via Youtube and Twitter