DiGiorno mistakenly tries to sell pizza using domestic abuse hashtag

It's not deliberate, it's DiGiorno.

Or, at least that's what the frozen pizza maker is saying after it mistakenly tweeted out a 'za-related tweet with a hashtag meant to show solidarity against domestic violence. Prompted by the Ray Rice abuse incident this week, the #WhyIStayed is meant to give victims of domestic abuse an outlet for their stories in conjunction with the #WhyILeft hashtag to show that the abuse can end.

For DiGiorno's Twitter account, though, it was another method of tone-deaf advertising:

The tweet was deleted almost immediately, but not before the internet seized on DiGiorno's apparent error. The company has also apologized for the tweet, with the account manager saying that they failed to check the context of the #WhyIStayed hashtag before posting:

The company also issued a short statement saying that they are sorry for the mistake:

This tweet was a mistake, quickly realized as such and deleted seconds later. Our community manager — and the entire DiGiorno team — is truly sorry. The tweet does not reflect our values and we've been personally responding to everyone who has engaged with us on social media. We apologize. 

DiGiorno is also making personal apologies to Twitter users who were offended by the gaffe—so kudos for that. Ultimately, though, this hopefully can serve as a learning experience for brands that use Twitter to raise their social media profiles.

After all, just as you must preheat the oven before baking a pizza, you must look before you tweet.

[Mashable]