The encyclopedia · Advertising & PR · Marketing decision · 2011
Kenneth Cole joked about Cairo's uprising to sell clothes — the apology came the next day
A spring-collection tweet joked about the Cairo uprising; the backlash made the joke the story, and Kenneth Cole apologized within a day.
Kenneth Cole Productions · 2011-02-03
What happened
On February 3, 2011, Kenneth Cole posted a tweet to his brand account: 'Millions are in an uproar in #Cairo. Rumor is they heard our new spring collection is now available online at http://bit.ly/KCairo -KC.' Egypt's uprising was days old, and the brand's chairman was using it as a call-to-action for a clothing sale.
The reaction was immediate. Parody accounts — @FakeKennethCole and @KennethColePR — launched within hours, and the hashtag turned on the brand. Per the Associated Press, the tweet gained the account roughly 3,000 followers, but they were not the kind a marketer wants. The LA Times and NBC News both covered the fallout the same day.
Cole apologized the next day, first on Twitter, then at greater length on Facebook: 'I apologize to everyone who was offended by my insensitive tweet about the situation in Egypt... my attempt at humor regarding a nation liberating themselves against oppression was poorly timed and absolutely inappropriate.' The statement became part of the story rather than ending it.
Why it happened
- The tweet turned a political upheaval into a product placement, treating a hashtag of protest as a sales channel.
- The joke was framed from the brand's perspective — 'they heard our collection is available' — which made the suffering invisible.
- Cole's own apology admitted the timing and framing were wrong, which converted outrage into a documented case study.
- It came in the early era of brands speaking through trending topics, and it became the cautionary example of the format.
The lesson
Before attaching a brand to a breaking news event, ask what the event looks like from inside it. A hashtag of protest is not a sales channel, and the joke lands on the people living the news.
Aftermath
Kenneth Cole kept the account and the brand, but the tweet followed him for years; it is now a standard case study in crisis-communication classes. The parody account @FakeKennethCole outlasted the controversy as a running commentary on the brand.
Sources
- Los Angeles Times, 4 February 2011 — Kenneth Cole apologizes for tweet using Egypt protests to promote fashion line
- NBC News, 3 February 2011 — Kenneth Cole's 'punny' Cairo tweet enrages Internet
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