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Clorox Washes ‘Racist’ Bleach Joke

Clorox has become the latest in a long line of companies to say something dumb on Twitter. It won’t be the last. Looking to piggyback on all the chatter surrounding the new Apple emojis, which m...
Clorox Washes ‘Racist’ Bleach Joke
Written by Josh Wolford
  • Clorox has become the latest in a long line of companies to say something dumb on Twitter. It won’t be the last.

    Looking to piggyback on all the chatter surrounding the new Apple emojis, which made their debut earlier this week, Clorox sent out a tweet with an image of a Clorox bottle composed entirely of existing emojis.

    “New emojis are alright, but where’s the bleach?” it read.

    In case you’re not caught up on the latest emoji news, the thing about the new emojis is that they contain a more racially diverse set of faces.

    Cue the outrage:

    Clorox has since removed the tweet and apologized, saying it wishes it “could bleach away that last tweet.”

    You know, toilets, sinks, tubs, wine, etc.

    There are two sides to this, both of which are maddening and ridiculous. On one hand you have Clorox – more specifically whoever runs Clorox’s social media presence. When your job is to run a large company’s social media, I’d like to think you’d be a little less myopic. That seems like an important trait of a social media manager.

    You have to be able to step back, look at the big picture, and see how a tweet or Facebook post could be misconstrued. Let’s call it the ooooooooh, I see principle. Or maybe the duuuuuude, c’mon rule.

    How could that tweet actually make it out?

    On the other hand, you have the social media outrage machine.

    You really think Clorox was making a racist joke? You honestly believe that whoever runs Clorox’s social media accounts thought to themselves hey, I’m going to black people bleach their skin – but you know, in a haha type of way!

    Lessons learned – 1.) hire a better social media manager and 2.) be a little more selective when it comes to where you sling your outrage. Save it for the intentionally racist garbage spewed out across the internet on a daily basis. There’s plenty.

    Now, let’s all focus on this truly offensive thing Clorox posted this week…

    Image via Clorox, Twitter

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