A line has been crossed here.
If you’re familiar with Twitter you’re probably familiar with the Paddy Power Twitter account at this stage.
The tweets from the account are cheeky, they’re often very funny and regularly put a few noses out of joint.
Today, however, the bookmaker crossed a line with a tweet from a subsidiary account, Paddy Power Offers, ahead of Liverpool’s clash with Newcastle this evening.
In it, a comparison is made between Newcastle’s record at Anfield and recent instances of violence towards black males by police in America and understandably, it did not go down well.
Newcastle have suffered more Kop beatings over the last 20 years than an unarmed African-American male. The stats: http://t.co/GOOdyAszNo
— Paddy Power Offers (@PPOffers) April 13, 2015
Predictably, there was plenty of outrage on Twitter, although plenty of people arrived at the conclusion that such a reaction was probably what the bookmaker was hoping for when sending the tweet in the first place.
.@PPOffers wow. That’s incredible. Betting company x advertising guru = insanity it seems.
— Justin Moorhouse (@justinmoorhouse) April 13, 2015
Oh dear. Paddy Power's social media team will have some "restructuring" soon methinks. pic.twitter.com/qXwOyNcD1r
— Doc (@Doc_Joshi) April 13, 2015
https://twitter.com/RKTweets/status/587644110389043200
Having been contacted by Business Insider to see if there would be an apology or if action would be taken against the person responsible for sending the tweet, Paddy Power issued the following response: “It’s clearly an acerbic reference to recent police activity in the US. And obviously, no offence was meant.”
They’ve gone too far this time, we’re afraid.
