New Delhi: It is a smart marketing and advertising strategy for brands to cash in on current events. But Lenskart, an online shopping portal for eyewear, took this a little too far by putting up an extremely insensitive post for promoting a discount offer.
After Nepal was hit by a massive earthquake Lenskart.com sent a promotional SMS, which said, “Shake it off like this Earthquake: Get any Vincent Chase Sunglasses upto Rs. 3000 for FLAT Rs. 500, by sending invites to 50 friends @ http://www.lenskart.com/refer-sun”.
Soon after sending these messages to its customers, it received a volley of criticism on social media.
Realising the gravity of the situation, the company then sent out another SMS at 3:01 pm apologising for the “accidental choice of words”.
The apology SMS said, "We apologise for the accidental choice of words in our SMS. Our intention was not to hurt anyone's feelings. We are extremely sorry for this error, Lenskart Team.''
Later on, Peyush Bansal & Amit Chaudhary, co-founders of Lenskart posted an apology on Twitter for sending this inappropriate message.
"We are sorry!" Peyush Bansal & Amit Chaudhary, co-founders, Lenskart - Note: http://t.co/2PFCS6eGn3 pic.twitter.com/6JlSrI3yEo
— Lenskart (@Lenskart_com) April 25, 2015
A strong earthquake measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale shook Nepal and several parts of India, including the national capital, leaving a trail of devastation.
