Another company has done it. It seems that lately, there are numerous companies (or people that work for companies) biting their tongues and having to apologize for their mistakes. Home Depot is now added to that list or resentful companies.
Apparently, the company tweeted a "racist" photo advertising the company to their "college game day" fans. The photo shows two black men sitting on orange, "Let's DO This" Home Depot buckets, posed as if they were drumming. In the middle of these men is a Caucasian man dressed in a monkey suit, also posing as if he were drumming.
"Which drummer is not like the others?"
The company (or the person who posted the photo to the network) followed with, "@CollegeGameDay pics at hdgameday.com #HDgameday #football," no doubt for advertising purposes. The photo was quickly deleted.
Jonathan Wall, or @imfromraleigh tweeted a screenshot the photo on Thursday, November 7, at 2:24 PM. Thanks and credit to him.
Offended people of twitter fired back with tweets on how it was inappropriate and "racist". Home Depot sent a bulk of them apologetic tweets back, apologizing and saying, "We have zero tolerance for anything so stupid and offensive. Deeply sorry. We terminated agency and individual who posted it."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I am surprised that no one caught the picture before it was posted. Perhaps they did. Perhaps they just assumed that the creators of their advertisements and the people in charge of posting them would have more sense. The action could have been committed on purpose, to stir up controversy and get the public talking about Home Depot and its great advertising techniques.
At this point, there is no need to dwell on how insensitive and unbelievable the ad was. Home Depot as a whole obviously doesn't have the same attitude towards the photo, or they would have left it up.
Even if they do, they took it down, that says something about them. They either want to keep their money and customers, or...want to keep their money and customers. It's simple, really.
And to anyone that denies the "racist" undertone of the photo, it's your own opinion. It's wrong, but that's just my opinion. The obvious attempted parallel between the monkey suit and the black men in the picture is undeniable. Come on.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The original article is here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/08/home-depot-racist-photo_n_4241039.html
The author is Kim Bhasin. It was posted to Huffington Post's website, under the business category.
It's amazing that none of the staff at Home Depot recognized the offensiveness of this picture before it was put on the internet. The picture must have been seen by dozens of employees before being put out there and I mean, yes, maybe it was a misjudgment and maybe no one saw this photo as being racist. Either way, I honestly don't see Home Depot losing customers over this, since they have such an established image as being a reliable home repair store, so I suppose this just proves the point that "no publicity is bad publicity".
ReplyDeleteThis is terrible. It really seems that those in charge of Home Depot's social media would know more about the effect of their posts than this.
ReplyDelete