KitchenAid Tweets Joke About Obama's Dead Grandma

[LTR]

Source: Mashable

An insensitive tweet poking fun at President Barack Obama’s late grandmother — posted on KitchenAid’s official U.S. account — caught the eye of many Twitter users Wednesday night during the presidential debate.

“Obamas gma even knew it was going 2 b bad! ‘She died 3 days b4 he became president’. #nbcpolitics,” @KitchenAidUSA posted to 24,000 followers before quickly deleting the tweet.

(snip)

KitchenAid immediately issued this apology, which brought even more attention to the situation.

KitchenAid
@KitchenAidUSA

Deepest apologies for an irresponsible tweet that is in no way a representation of the brand's opinion. #nbcpolitics
3 Oct 12

Read more: http://mashable.com/2012/10/03/kitchen-aid-obama-dead-grandma/

---

Companies really need to look at who they hire to do their tweeting.

[calimary]

1. Too late.

[VespertineIconoclast]

12. Precisely. Kitchen Aid's damage control won't be fast enough to erase this. n/t

[SoapBox]

2. WTF?

[fishwax]

3. wow -- wtf

[lonestarnot]

4. WTF!

[PSPS]

5. "... is in no way a representation of the brand's opinion."

Deepest apologies for an irresponsible tweet that is in no way a representation of the brand's opinion

Brands are people, my friend.

[ZombieHorde]

6. Holy shit. I imagine someone will be fired over this. nt

[JusticeForAll]

7. Hopefully after the company loses A LOT of business. n/t

[Le Taz Hot]

9. I hope not

because their stand mixers are still made in the U.S.A.

[adigal]

17. I know...and I was planning to buy one soon

But for now, I won't spend a dime on their products.

[calikid]

18. ditto n/t

[marble falls]

19. I like my Viking stand mixer just fine.

[SemperEadem]

23. I"m going to go look at Viking

I also like Sunbeam, but I'll look into Viking.

[marble falls]

47. The pasta maker is a bit chintzi - extruder rather than a roller, but it also has a blender dock ...

Viking makes good stuff.

[SemperEadem]

22. same here

I"m pissed that I bought a small steamer pot from them recently.

[TalkingDog]

28. Here's hoping you suffer financially for something your drunken uncle says.

Should it have happened? No.

But are you positive it reflects the views of any substantial portion of Kitchen Aides management or employees? You can't know that, yet you are willing to have them suffer for something their "idiot brother" or "Fox watching Aunty" says.

I surely don't want to live in a world where "liberals" like you run things.

[Ikonoklast]

29. See post #25. They need to feel the pain.

After they recitify the situation, they will be rewarded.


Financial pain is the only thing a corporation can feel.

[frylock]

34. this wasn't some asshole spewing nonsense in the breakroom..

perhaps a little revenue loss will help them to step up the interview process and weed out dicks like this who are fronting their PR.

[marble falls]

48. And I don't policy decided corporately against where I want my money to go. They have freedom of ...

and I have the right to disagree and shop elsewhere. I don't want their speech curtailed, I just want to know whats on their minds and they can market to the segment of haters they want while I get to buy where I want. I think your complaint is a lot like the cries of "voter ID" - it doesn't mean a thing.

[LanternWaste]

53. I imagine that should some unnamed employee decide to speak his mind

I imagine that should some unnamed employee decide to speak his mind with a tweet, some unnamed consumer should be able to speak his or her mind with his or her money.


That's not really "running things", it's simply a benign decision.

[proReality]

31. If people buy one of their dishwashers word will get around

Mine was $800 and hasn't cleaned a dish properly since it was purchased. I spent more than I really wanted to, but their products have always been good, so I bit the bullet. Now that Whirlpool owns them (and just about every other brand), they have gone downhill in a hurry.

[Sherman A1]

14. The article I read

indicated that the individual responsible would no longer be "tweeting" for Kitchen Aid. One suspects severely disciplined or terminated would be the outcome of this incident.

I think it is not so much that it happened, things do in all our lives and relationships. It is how Kitchen Aid responds to the situation, how quickly (which it appears they are doing) and with what solution.

I would give them a chance to cure before I would put them on a personal boycott list myself.

[Orangepeel]

16. +1. One can't boycott every company that used to have an asshole working for them

I don't tweet, so I don't know how likely it is that the idiot tweeting got confused about what account he/she was on at the time.

But that sure looks like it was meant to be a personal thing accidentally sent through a company channel. No one with any professional competence would send that through Kitchenaid, no matter how they felt.

[Darth_Kitten]

52. I don't want to pay for the idiots working in my workplace....

Isn't it bad enough I get the pissed-off customers who talked to these morons before?

There are idiots in every organization. Some, a lot more than others.

[SemperEadem]

25. I won't

give them a chance. You only get one shot at a first impression and this person dragged that company into opprobrium. If the company isn't made to feel the pain, then they will learn nothing.

[Sherman A1]

27. If that is how you feel, I would urge you to

contact them and let them know. I would think it would have far more impact than simply not buying their products.

I respect your choice, I disagree with your choice, but respect it.

[SemperEadem]

40. I did exactly that.

my $350 might not be missed by them, but I"m sure Viking or Sunbeam wouldn't mind having it instead.

[carla]

51. Actually,

if you want to talk first impressions then Kitchenaids excellent quality kitchen machines should be the impression you look to. Politics is divisive and this tweet has been vigorously denounced by corp. PR. I suggest we calm down, take a breath and not trash an employer because one employee tweeted something we find distasteful. Peoples jobs and families are on the line when we hit a corp with a boycott. What have those workers ever done to deserve a boycott? We can write emails to the board and management making clear how we feel about the disparaging treatment of the POTUS. Measured responses serve our needs better than knee jerk reactions and we don't create collateral damage that hurts families and workers. Please.

[marble falls]

49. One could be diaspointed by that suspicion, too.

[PossumSqueezins]

8. Will never buy a Kitchen Aid mixer or dishwasher again

And I hold a grudge.

I won't buy Hershey's products or Coor's beer. Will not shop at Walmart or Target. Will not eat at Chick-Fil-A or Cracker Barrell.

The list is much longer and I'll spare you the details.

FUCK REPUCLICANS.

[sendero]

15. When company management..

.... directly supports Republicans as in most or all of your examples above, I think a boycott makes sense.

When some peon employee, who almost certainly is no longer an employee, does something stupid like this, I'm not likely to hold the company responsible.

If I though that management had approved that tweet, I would agree with you. I'm betting you whatever that it was just some asshole.

[marble falls]

21. Me, too and I won't either. It sure took the shine off my grandmom's mixer standing in my kitchen.

[Marthe48]

26. I've boycotted since the 70's

My boycott list is longer than my grocery list.

[montana_hazeleyes]

10. I know it's been said a million times, but

why are these right wingers so hateful? Pathetic psychopaths. Is nothing off limits to them? Is nothing just plain wrong - headed to them? Sickening and appalling freaks. Now, I'm not saying all Republicans at all. But the ones like this - why such deep hate?

[BumRushDaShow]

11. "why are these right wingers so hateful?"

Birds of the feather, flock together. Those who have this type of hateful, vindictive personality gravitate towards those who are like themselves. And this is what the GOP has become - a group of people who have no empathy, no sympathy, and no hope, and who get their jollies attacking others (and even this won't soothe them).

[fasttense]

13. How horrible, to attack one's dead Mema.

Words can't express the total disgust at the cruelty and heartlessness of the comment.

Really? They have to attack one's dead Grandmother? Even the out of touch, filthy rich, trust fund baby running for president told Obama Happy Anniversary. The person who sent this tweet is so out of touch with any basic human decency that it is no wonder the twittering fool is representing a corporation.

[Bluenorthwest]

20. That is heinous beyond compare. Foul, vile, and the end of any custom I gave

KitchenAid, which was once a great brand. Fuck them for their viciousness and their neglect of good citizenship.

[JNelson6563]

33. Spot on.

[Blueprogress]

24. Wow

No words for such stupidity.

[jwirr]

30. Even if this was about an unknown person it is in very poor taste. Kitchenaid will not be one of my

choices in the future.

[AtheistCrusader]

32. I would fire that person immediately.

Not a chance in hell that I would have a person with that crude of a sense of humor, regardless of political affiliation, working public relations for my company/advertising.

[montanto]

35. And I was just going to buy a heavy duty kitchenaid mixer.

No lie, just shopping them yesterday for a purchase this month.

[Mad_Dem_X]

36. How tasteless.

I hope the person who tweeted this has been fired.

[Beacool]

37. Some people need to calm down.

This is not KitchenAid's position. It was the tweet of one single employee who was probably punished or fired. The company immediately issued an apology.

What more do some of you want from them, blood?

[budkin]

38. There goes my future purchases of KitchenAid

Insensitive assholes.

[budkin]

39. Ok nevermind, I didn't read that it was just some random employee

Still, what an insensitive asshole.

[yardwork]

44. It wasn't a "random employee." It was the person hired to tweet on behalf of the company.

That's a pretty big "mistake" for a public relations professional to make.

[StarryNite]

41. Un-fucking believable!

[47of74]

43. The only way they could make up for this in my eyes

I posted on their facebook feed that there was one way they could make up for this in my eyes. And that is to take the equivalent of this year's profit that their division made Whirlpool and donate that in new products to homeless shelters, womens shelters, schools, and so forth.

[Justice]

46. I like that idea. They need to do something to show they are really sorry

[24601]

45. Imposible! That would imply KitchenAid is a person. Oh, that's right, corporations are made

up of people after all. So is Solyent Green - but to be fair, that's a product.

[and-justice-for-all]

50. Too late fuckers!!!