Microsoft apologizes for tacky Amy Winehouse tweet, but not really

With a messy sensibility to make even Lady Bunny blush, Microsoft’s PR department layed a colossal egg when they tweeted hours after Amy Winehouse’s death the great savings her fans could get on her music over at the Zune Marketplace.

The tweet read: “Remember Amy Winehouse by downloading the ground-breaking ‘Back to Black’ over at Zune:social.zune.net/album/Amy-Wine…”

No, no, no.

After a noisy backlash on Twitter, Microsoft apologized, saying: “Apologies to everyone if our earlier Amy Winehouse ‘download’ tweet seemed purely commercially motivated. Far from the case, we assure you.”

Here’s a pro-tip for anyone who needs to be sincere about their apologies: it’s not technically an apology when your statement is conditional. If you mean it, don’t use the word “if” in your apology. Acknowleding you made a mistake and taking ownership of it is the right thing to do. Moving the attention away from yourself and onto others by making it conditional “I’m sorry IF I offended you” just makes you sound like an even bigger marketing douchebag.

Here’s what I would have liked to see them say: “Whoops! Sorry for our earlier Amy Winehouse tweet, some of you thought it was in poor taste, and we agree. Here’s a coupon to download any of her songs on us. Sorry.”

Why are marketing people so bad at marketing and just being decent human beings?

This entry was posted on Monday, July 25th, 2011 at 1:35 pm and is filed under Culture & Style, Music, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.