Bing apologizes for earlier Tweet, which used the Japan earthquake as a marketing campaign

Microsoft's Bing has apologized for a Tweet sent Saturday that offended many. The Tweet was criticized because, although it proposed a method to "give" to Japan earthquake relief, it also turned it into a marketing campaign.

The original Tweet said:

Now you can #SupportJapan - http://binged.it/fEh7iT. For every retweet, @bing will give $1 to Japan quake victims, up to $100K.

Well-intentioned as was, many saw nothing wrong with it and simply retweeted it. However, many others saw that it was also using a huge tragedy as a marketing campaign and objected.

In response, Bing Tweeted this, just about 7 hours later:

We apologize the tweet was negatively perceived. Intent was to provide an easy way for people to help Japan. We have donated $100K.

A tip of the hat to Microsoft for not deleting the original Tweet. Kenneth Cole experienced similar Twitter outrage when the design firm Tweeted a link to its spring collection in early February and then attempted to tie the “uproar” in Egypt to excitement over that collection.

Millions are in uproar in #Cairo. Rumor is they heard our new spring collection is now available online at http://bit.ly/KCairo.

Cole himself eventually Tweeted an apology, but unlike Microsoft, erased the original evidential Tweet.