Home Depot racist tweet has left the company in hot water on Thursday after the home improvement store tweeted a picture of two African-American drummers with a person in a gorilla mask in between them and asked: "Which drummer is not like the others?"
Home Depot rushed to delete the tweet, which it called "dumb," and subsequently apologized. The tweet, from Home Depot's official Twitter account, @HomeDepot, was part of a "College Gameday" college football promotion on ESPN.
"We have zero tolerance for anything so stupid and offensive," Home Depot tweeted. The company assured customers that both the marketing agency and the individual who posted the tweet have been terminated, though it didn't reveal the name of the agency.
It was quickly pulled, but not before people took screen shots of it and it was widely circulated on social media. NBC and CNBC, among others, reported on the Tweet.
According to the Associated Press, Home Depot said Friday that it has fired the person and outside agency that was responsible for the tweet, but did not disclose their names.
"We have zero tolerance for anything so stupid and offensive," said Stephen Holmes, spokesman for the Atlanta-based company.
"We're also closely reviewing our social media procedures to determine how this could have happened, and how to ensure it never happens again," Home Depot told NBC News.
Home Depot is not the first company to get in trouble for offensive tweets. In September, AT&T apologized for a Twitter message that commemorated the Sept. 11 attacks because of complaints the company was using the event to promote itself.
