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Monday, March 14, 2011

The Twitter / Ethics Adventures in Tone-Deaf Altruism

Posted by Anthony Hecht on Mon, Mar 14, 2011 at 10:25 AM

Microsoft's ability to make itself look terrible, even when doing something good, is already legendary, but they still manage to reach for new heights.

Example! On Saturday morning, Microsoft posted this on their Bing Twitter account:

1299998249-screen_shot_2011-03-12_at_10.36.58_pm.png

The Internet went ballistic of course, and I don't blame it. I guess if only 50,000 people retweet their message, then those poor Japanese people are just out 50 grand, eh? Too bad, quake victims, should have gotten more retweets!

Several hours later, Bing tweeted that they were sorry "that the tweet was negatively perceived", and they've donated the full $100K regardless of the outcome of their marketing contest.

That's definitely nice and all, and I'm sure their intentions from the start were mostly good, but geez, they can't even get an apology right.

Tip: lamenting how people have perceived your actions is not an apology. It's a fake apology. An appropriate 140-character apology would go something like this: "Oh my god we're so sorry. We didn't think that through. Giving $1M to Japan—still a pittance to us—to make up for our cluelessness. Ugh."

 

Comments (6) RSS

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1
Why is this sooooooo bad? They're still giving money aren't they?! By the way, how much money did all those critics of Bing give to the Red Cross? $10? $100? Am I a shill for Bing? Is this another reason for semi-affluent people to feel okay with not donating any money? Yes.
Posted by Sūṕër Ḉḩüñdŷ on March 14, 2011 at 10:39 AM · Report
2
Agreeing with SC.

If you could bottle and sell "umbrage taking," America's trade deficit would disappear overnight.

Posted by Commenty Colin on March 14, 2011 at 11:04 AM · Report
3
Yeah, what. I read that tweet, and was like, "That's cool!" Maybe I need to learn to be a more critical dickhead.
Posted by ROM on March 14, 2011 at 11:38 AM · Report
4
Donations for disaster relief are an expression of narcissism. It's good to see that the staff of The Mercury is above that sort of thing.
Posted by Smiley on March 14, 2011 at 1:09 PM · Report
5
Disaster victims themselves are expressions of narcissism. "Oh, look at meeee! I need help."
Posted by ROM on March 14, 2011 at 1:47 PM · Report
6
Wow! Microsoft can spare $100K? They must be having a good year! Windows 7 really took off then!
Posted by Samuel John Klein on March 14, 2011 at 8:33 PM · Report

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