NRA, Celeb Boutique now in Twitter Hall of Shame after insensitive tweets

The National Rifle Association (NRA) and Celeb Boutique, an online ecommerce site, each found themselves in hot water earlier today after individuals responsible for updating their social media presences posted a pair of brazenly ignorant tweets following the horrific theater shootings in Aurora, Colorado.

Someone at Celeb Boutique noticed that “Aurora” was trending on Twitter and decided to post the following:

#Aurora is trending, clearly about our Kim K #Aurora inspired dress. ;) Shop: celebboutique.com/aurora-white-p…

Angry Twitter users wasted no time in slamming Celeb Boutique, which eventually realized it had made a terrible mistake and began apologizing profusely:

We at CelebBoutique are deeply and truly sorry from the bottom of our hearts for our tweet regarding the Aurora trend on Twitter… We were unaware of the horrific tragedy that occurred in Colorado and though there is no excuse for our mistake, we hope the families of the victims will accept our greatest sympathies and apologies along with the American public.  Please be aware our social media is handled exclusively in the U.K. and our U.S. PR efforts only caught wind after our team discovered the terrible mistake. Again, we cannot apologize enough for any offense we may have caused and hope everyone can forgive us for this terrible mistake.

Meanwhile, an NRA spokesperson - who also apparently lives under a rock and didn’t read, see, or hear about the shootings after getting up this morning - posted this:

Good morning, shooters. Happy Friday! Weekend plans?

Hours later, the Twitter account that the tweet originated from was deleted, and the NRA issued a brief statement complaining that the tweet had been taken out of context. What context was that, exactly? Had the NRA’s P.R. person been paying attention to the news, he would have been aware that a terrible atrocity was committed last night with firearms, and would have had the sense not to post something so insensitive - even unintentionally.

The lesson? Think before you tweet!