Feb 4, 2011 14:58 GMT  ·  By
Designer Kenneth Cole offends by using Egypt protests to promote his line
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   Designer Kenneth Cole offends by using Egypt protests to promote his line

There’s doing anything for publicity and then there’s this: American designer Kenneth Cole came under serious fire after using the hashtag “#Cairo” on Twitter to raise awareness on his latest collection.

Hours ago, Cole thought of increasing his platform by using the trend #Cairo on Twitter, which, obviously, was meant only for those discussing the violent protests in Egypt.

But the designer had no intention of speaking about the people dying in the streets – in fact, he actually deemed it appropriate to crack a joke about why people were up in arms in Egypt.

“Millions are in uproar in #Cairo. Rumor is they heard our new spring collection is now available online at http://bit.ly/KCairo -KC” Cole tweeted.

The “KC” at the end means the tweet was written by him and not by his PR team, as he also mentions in his Twitter bio.

Understandably, the twitterverse was not happy with him using the events in Egypt to promote himself – and they immediately let him know.

Cole has deleted the initial tweet and has written a new one to apologize, while also posting a longer apology on his Facebook page.

“Re Egypt tweet: we weren’t intending to make light of a serious situation. We understand the sensitivity of this historic moment –KC” Cole wrote on Twitter.

Then, on Facebook, he posted a longer apology, saying that he’d never intended to make light of the situation in Cairo.

“I apologize to everyone who was offended by my insensitive tweet about the situation in Egypt,” he says on Facebook.

“I’ve dedicated my life to raising awareness about serious social issues, and in hindsight my attempt at humor regarding a nation liberating themselves against oppression was poorly timed and absolutely inappropriate,” he adds.

As expected, not many are convinced of his honesty. After all, if he was so “dedicated to raising awareness about serious social issues,” he wouldn’t have made the bad joke in the first place, they’re saying.

Since Cole literally put his foot in his mouth, a false account @KennethColePR has appeared, showing him other ways in which he could have offended so many people with less than 140 characters.

“Parents of Hiroshima – you’ll melt when you see our new kids collection!” reads one tweet on the fake page.

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Designer Kenneth Cole offends by using Egypt protests to promote his line
Protesters in Cairo, Egypt
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