Patriots' Twitter promotion goes horribly wrong
A seemingly innocent promotion by the New England Patriots blew up in the team's face on Thursday.
The Patriots offered to thank fans for helping the team reach one million Twitter followers by offering them a custom digital Patriots jersey, with the user's handle on the name plate.
We're saying thanks to @patriots' 1million followers w/ custom digital Pats jerseys - RT for yours! #1MillionPatriots pic.twitter.com/u2SfidCb9e
— New England Patriots (@Patriots) November 13, 2014
Unfortunately, a Twitter user with a racist slur in their handle was granted a digital jersey by the automatic system the team had set up. That tweet was sent out by the Patriots' account along with all the others.
After a public outcry, the team eventually caught on to what had happened and deleted the tweet, later issuing this apology.
We apologize for the regrettable tweet that went out from our account. Our filtering system failed & we will be more vigilant in the future.
— New England Patriots (@Patriots) November 14, 2014
Of course, that wasn't the end of it, as the Twitterverse continued to go after the team.
Setting up a sweet automatic 'thank you' system when I hit a mil. What could go wrong?
— Michelle Beadle (@MichelleDBeadle) November 14, 2014
Live shot of the @Patriots front office pic.twitter.com/ttGRSl7Kw9
— Jason Sparks (@sparksjls) November 14, 2014
Has Roger Goodell suspended the @Patriots twitter feed yet?
— Andrew's Head (@AndrewLucksHead) November 14, 2014
The @Patriots are the reason Twitter can't have nice things.
— Jake Bradley (@JacobVBradley) November 14, 2014
(h/t: Yahoo Sports)