Habitat Gets Into Twitter Trouble

Tag this one #HabitatFail. The United Kingdom-based homegoods retailer founded in 1964 by Terence Conran stirred up a social media scandal by using popular Twitter search terms in an attempt to draw viewers to its newly launched Twitter feed. Habitat’s controversial tweets, which have since been deleted, prefaced news of a sale on the retailer’s spring collection and a contest to win a gift card with popular searchable hashtags such as #Apple, #iPhone, and #MOUSAWI, the latter apparently to target that savvy demographic seeking news of the Iranian elections and a discounted shower curtain (in a fetching ersatz Eames print), fondue set, or David Adjaye-designed rug. After an Australian blog called attention to the opportunistic tweeting in a post entitled “How Not to Use Twitter,” Habitat issued an apology, blaming “an overenthusiastic intern who did not fully understand the ramifications of his actions,” according to a spokesman. “He is no longer associated with Habitat.”

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