The Globe and Mail’s article “DiGiorno Pizza’s Twitter apology comes fully baked“ involves DiGiorno Pizza and its misuse and inattentiveness on Twitter. The restaurant tweeted “#WhyIStayed You had pizza”. Prior to this tweet, a number of women took action on Twitter to show their support in relating to being involved with abusive relationships and responded with “#WhyIStayed and #WhyILeft”. Some Twitter users perceived the tweet as being completely offensive while others respected the brand’s actions of sufficient recovery in apologizing to the public and taking full social responsibility.
Image: DiGiorno Pizza
In reference to Freeman’s Stakeholder Theory, a business in decline is one that “does not pay attention to corporate responsibility, sustainability and effects on civil society.” This is a clear example of how positive opportunities of using social media to advertise can result in negative outcomes if not used prudently and properly. Many viewers felt this tweet was out of context as it was insulting and discourteous to those affected by domestic violence. According to Friedman, the social responsibility of business is to consider two levels; “principle and consequences.” Although the brand creator of the tweet was merely joking by participating in the social media trend, Twitter is still an enormous platform for digital marketing and therefore, DiGiorno should have been aware before posting and considered the possible consequences. The concepts of business ethics are supported in this article as the response of the public can be affected by a brand’s overall attentiveness and perception on their social responsibility to its consumers.
