Furniture retailer Habitat has offered an apology after adverts for the store turned up in trending Twitter topics such as ‘Iran’ and ‘Mousavi’. One tweet read: “HabitatUK: #MOUSAVI Join the database for free to win a £1,000 gift card.”
Using Twitter to promote products and services is part of a new breed of internet marketing, but clearly linking contemporary furnishings with the current political turmoil in Iran goes beyond the pale.
An official statement sought to distance the company from the brewing PR disaster following public outcry, stating “This was absolutely not authorized by Habitat.” “We were shocked when we discovered that happened and are very sorry for the offense that has been caused,” the statement read.
Habitat has refused to name who was responsible for getting a little too enthusiastic with the hashtags, although it has stated that it “never sought to abuse Twitter”.
(via BBC)
