A Microsoft PR twitter account came under fire for cynically exploiting the death of British soul singer Amy Winehouse, Mashable.com said on July 25.
The small PR account for Xbox tweeted: “Remember Amy Winehouse by downloading the ground-breaking ‘Back to Back’ album over at Zune ...”
Zune is Microsoft's entertainment marketplace.
Mashable.com said the tweet sparked a furore, with tweets in response such as “classy", "crass much?" and "Microsoft — failing at social media".
In response, the account was forced to tweet an apology: “Apologies to everyone if our earlier Amy Winehouse 'download' tweet seemed purely commercially motivated.
"Far from the case, we assure you."
Mashable.com said that “Microsoft isn’t the only company to be criticized for a seeming attempt to capitalize on the star’s death”.
“Apple posted an image of Winehouse on the front of the iTunes store with the caption ‘remembering Amy Winehouse’. Her breakout album, the Grammy winning Back to Black, has subsequently become the number-one album in the store.
“Amazon also posted a brief obituary that linked to a page where shoppers can purchase the singer’s music.”