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Starbucks apologises for asking Republic of Ireland followers if they are proud to be British

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By The Drum Team, Editorial

June 6, 2012 | 2 min read

Starbucks has apologised to Irish customers after it asked followers ‘show us what makes you proud to be British’.

Responses to the tweet, which received dozens of retweets, included @Jim_Sheridan saying ‘It took 2 hours for Starbucks to discover Ireland isn't part of the British Empire.Their History/Geography expert was on a Coffee break :)’ and @FergusMcNally saying ‘the ie stands for Ireland, awaiting the apology before I visit your stores again!!’

It took several hours for the coffee chain to tweet an apology, which read ‘We erroneously posted to our Irish Twitter page meaning to post to the UK only. Customers in Ireland: We're sorry.’, leading to some tweeters asking why the account is being handled in the UK and not Ireland.

The company then released a statement: "First and foremost we apologise to our Irish customers for the mistake made on Twitter this afternoon.

"The tweet, which was only meant to be sent to our British Twitter followers as part of the diamond jubilee celebrations, was erroneously posted to our Irish Twitter page.

"We apologise to all our customers and followers on Twitter in Ireland and hope that they will forgive our mistake."

What do you think? Is this a PR disaster for Starbucks in Ireland or likely to be forgotten by tomorrow?

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