Does one tweet have the capability of ruining the whole career of a respected PR professional? Apparently, it does. One Tweet costed Justine Sacco, Senior Director, Corporate Communications at IAC(ex), her job and all the respect she earned with her talent as a PR professional.
It all started when Justine made this Tweet “ Going to Africa. Hope I don’t get AIDS. Just kidding. I’m white!”. The one tweet managed to be racist and insensitive to people suffering from the horrible disease. Needless to say that while her friends took the tweet in a sporting manner, the tweet was condemned by almost everyone who came to know about it. Ever since, Justine has been trying to make amends for one mistake she and many others will never forget.
As expected, Justine made an apology tweet, but it was too late. Sacco was fired by her employer and her Twitter account was deleted. Her Facebook account is still active and she is using it to do anything to undo what she did. But the damage has already been done. As per her Facebook account, she has been receiving threats even after she apologised countless times.
Twitter is swarmed with tweets condemning Justine’s racist remarks. People are using #HasJustineLandedYet to register their response to this event. One of the most popular of them is
Going to North America. Hope I don't get shot by George Zimmerman. Just kidding! I'm white.#HasJustineLandedYet
— Ellie Mac (@ellenmc) December 21, 2013
People are all furious by the tweet. Some reacted in a constructive way by donating funds to AIDS research while the others have shown their anger as tweets and comments. Visitors to JustineSacco.com are redirected to Aid for Africa, while another website that references Sacco’s tweet is accepting donations for AIDS relief.
One mistake of a PR professional is turning out to be the social media fiasco of the year.
via SocialAppsHQ Blog http://www.socialappshq.com/blog/2013/12/23/justine-sacco-apologized/
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