2.04.11 - 8:00AM
- by
Jay Hathaway

Kenneth Cole Exploits Egypt to Hawk Shoes, Inspires Parody Twitter Account

kenneth cole's tweet abused cairo hashtag on twitter by using egypt situation to promote shoes

Fashion designer Kenneth Cole caught flack on Thursday for posting a tweet that makes light of the current situation in Egypt to promote his latest collection. The offending tweet read, "Millions are in uproar in #Cairo. Rumor is they heard our new spring collection is now available online at http://bit.ly/KCairo -KC."

It seems unlikely that many Egyptians were aware of Cole's spring line, considering that they've been without internet access for days, and they've been a little bit busy fighting their own police force and protecting the Library of Alexandria with a human shield. Cole was immediately called out by bloggers and media outlets for "hashtag abuse," because he exploited the understandably popular #cairo hashtag to score a bigger Twitter audience for his shoes.

Cole apologized for this violation of Twitter etiquette and good taste, but not before he'd garnered a scathing parody Twitter account, @kennethcolepr. It follows in the footsteps of the legendary @BPglobalPR, the fake Twitter account that skewered BP during the 2010 Gulf oil spill. So far, @kennethcolePR has amassed around 6,000 followers in one day of tweeting.

Check out a few of the best, most offensive tweets from this parody account below.

Did a Jihadist blow up ur luggage while u were traveling in India? Head over to my store and Mumbai a whole new wardrobe! #KennethColeTweetsless than a minute ago via webKennethColePR
KennethColePR