KitchenAid insults Obama's grandma

The appliance company has landed itself in a P.R. disaster after writing an offensive tweet during the debates

Published October 4, 2012 6:02PM (EDT)

Someone from KitchenAid's Twitter account tweeted an exceptionally tasteless "joke" about President Barack Obama's deceased grandmother (who passed away shortly before he took office) during last night's presidential debate: "Obamas gma even knew it was going 2 b bad! 'She died 3 days b4 he became president' #nbcpolitics"

The tweet was deleted within minutes, but not before users caught on and the media picked it up. Almost 20 hours later, KitchenAid is still cleaning up the mess. Cynthia Soledad, KitchenAid's senior director of marketing, told CNN:

"During the debate tonight, a member of our Twitter team mistakenly posted an offensive tweet from the KitchenAid handle instead of a personal handle. The tasteless joke in no way represents our values at KitchenAid, and that person won't be tweeting for us anymore … I am deeply sorry to President Obama, his family, and the Twitter community for this careless error."

Soledad issued a series of apologizes via @KitchenAidUSA, as well.

h/t AdWeek


By Prachi Gupta

Prachi Gupta is an Assistant News Editor for Salon, focusing on pop culture. Follow her on Twitter at @prachigu or email her at pgupta@salon.com.

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