BBC News reports that the furniture chain Habitat is very, very sorry for using keywords such as “Iran” and “Mousavi” to drive sales via Twitter. The tweets were posted last week and have since been removed, but in case you missed the poetry of this particular brand of badvertising, here’s one sample: #MOUSAVI Join the database for free to win a £1,000 gift card!

Wait. How sorry was that?

The business said it was “totally against” its communications strategy, that it had removed the content and would ensure it did not happen again.

Now if you’ll excuse us we need to go promote our new book. #Wimbledon #Nena #shameless

“Habitat sorry for Iran Tweeting” [BBC News] (Thanks, Charles Star!)

Guest Bloggers Carrie McLaren & Jason Torchinsky are coeditors of Ad Nauseam: A Survivor’s Guide to American Consumer Culture. In previous lives, they worked together on the hopelessly obscure and now defunct Stay Free! magazine.

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