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Microsoft apologizes for Amy Winehouse tweet

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One could feel a tiny bit bad for the person at Microsoft’s British PR team who tweeted ‘Remember Amy Winehouse by downloading the ground-breaking Back to Black over at Zune.’

He or she must be having a terrible day.

On one hand, it may have seemed like a sensible marketing move: The person was probably correct in thinking that people might want to remember the singer, who was found dead in London on Saturday, by listening to her music. On the other hand, it reads as an insensitive way for Microsoft to cash in on the tragedy surrounding the 27-year-old performer.

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Most of the Twittersphere has seen it in the insensitive light, and they’ve been tweeting and retweeting about it all morning.

‘Cheap’

‘Ouch’

‘Vile-leaches--seriously?’

‘Gross’

‘Utterly tasteless’

‘Vultures’

‘Real smooth’

‘Wow’

And that’s just a tiny sampling of the Twitter-river of venom the post has inspired.

Microsoft has since apologized for the post, via tweet of course:

‘Apologies to everyone if our earlier Amy Winehouse ‘download’ tweet seemed purely commercially motivated. Far from the case, we assure you.’

‘Of course it was purely commercial you vile vermin.’ responded one angry guy immediately.

And then, to show an even more understanding side the company wrote:

‘With Amy W’s passing, the world has lost a huge talent. Our thoughts are with Amy’s family and friends at this very sad time.’

But the cat (or the tweet) is out of the bag, and Microsoft is going to have to work harder to win back the respect of the Twittersphere.

Luckily, the Twittersphere has some thoughts: ‘Why don’t you let people download for free then?’

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-- Deborah Netburn

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