DiGiorno Pizza is known for an active, irreverent Twitter feed, but Monday night, the brand made a serious misstep when it jumped in on a hashtag conversation about domestic violence.
The brand took down the tweet minutes later after harsh backlash, but many on Twitter took screenshots for posterity.
ICYMI: @DiGiornoPizza engaged with the domestic violence awareness hashtag #WhyIStayed last night. It went like this: pic.twitter.com/kIDZcAFp65— Neetzan Zimmerman (@neetzan) September 9, 2014
This week, the hashtag #WhyIStayed became an online forum for women who have survived abusive relationships and stayed with their partners. The discussion that gained momentum after a video was released by TMZ on Monday showing former Baltimore Ravens running back punching his then-fiancée Janay Rice in a hotel elevator and dragging her out while she appears to be unconscious. (After the video leaked, Rice was consequently cut by the Ravens and suspended by the NFL indefinitely.) The conversation includes another hashtag, too: #WhyILeft.
DiGiorno was quick to realize its error and apologize.
A million apologies. Did not read what the hashtag was about before posting.— DiGiorno Pizza (@DiGiornoPizza) September 9, 2014
DiGiorno released the following statement about the incident:
This tweet was a mistake, quickly realized as such and deleted seconds later.
Our community manager -- and the entire DiGiorno team -- is truly sorry.
The tweet does not reflect our values and we’ve been personally responding to everyone who has engaged with us on social media.
We apologize.