Like many, I spent most of last night glued to the news and was following all social media updates as Hurricane Sandy battered the east coast of America, sending NYC into darkness and causing devastation to other surrounding areas. I was then absolutely gobsmacked when one of my followers on Twitter re-tweeted this post by retail giant GAP.

After a few searches using the #sandy on Twitter I noticed a few other brands using the already trending topic to send well wishes to the people in the effected areas acoss the US where the storm had already touched land. These messages were all well timed, sensitive tweets, which is great to see, it shows that there is a real person behind these brands on Twitter. However, what GAP has done is try to use the #sandy trending topic to promote their brand and to advise people following the # that their stores are still open with lots of shopping taking place.

After a flurry of tweets from other angry users on Twitter GAP quickly removed the tweet.  But as we all know, once something is posted on Twitter it never goes away especially if you are a large brand like GAP.

This was then followed up with a vaguely apologetic update as you can see below.

I’m not sure about you, but I really don’t see how a check-in on foursquare prompting people that that Gap stores are still open with “lots of GAP shopping” taking place can be interpreted as a way of advising people to keep indoors and stay safe, as the follow up tweet suggests.

This is another great example of a social media fail by a major global brand. I sincerely hope that someone within the GAP PR department is held accountable for this and that a review of their current social media policy is currently underway.