An inappropriate tweet has left DiGiorno Pizza issuing multiple apologies on Twitter.
Late Monday night, a tweet on the DiGiorno Pizza account said, "#WhyIStayed You Had Pizza."
The hashtag was being used by victims of domestic abuse to explain why they stayed with partners who abused them. The conversation picked up steam Monday when TMZ released new video showing Baltimore Ravens football player Ray Rice hitting his then-fiancee.
Within hours, the Ravens had terminated Rice and the NFL suspended Rice indefinitely.
Many questioned why the woman Rice hit married him weeks later. Thus, others started telling their stories on social media using the hashtag #WhyIStayed.
A short time after DiGiorno sent a tweet with the same hashtag, it started getting attacked and the apologies began.
A million apologies. Did not read what the hashtag was about before posting.
— DiGiorno Pizza (@DiGiornoPizza) September 9, 2014
Fans and others tweeted DiGiorno saying:
- Stupid idiot @DiGiornoPizza makes major faux pas with #WhyIStayed joke
- .@DiGiornoPizza This is incredibly insensitive & inappropriate. Domestic violence is no laughing matter.
- @DiGiornoPizza Disgusting. How dare you make fun of such a serious situation!
DiGiorno has been responding to the criticism saying, "It was shameful. I am so sorry I posted something that made light of such a serious topic."
"I would never intentionally make light of this subject. A careless mistake I couldn't feel worse about" and "It was a truly awful post and I take responsibility for it. I had not checked the context of the hashtag beforehand. I am so sorry."
Hours before the incident, DiGiorno had been tweeting about the Broncos football game using all caps, which means you're yelling everything, and the hashtag: #DiGiorNOYOUDIDNT
YO DENVER, IS UR REFRIGERATOR RUNNING? YES? THEN YOU SHOULD TIE YOUR RB TO IT hahaha ur still winning by a wide margin #DiGiorNOYOUDIDNT
— DiGiorno Pizza (@DiGiornoPizza) September 8, 2014
