Clorox tweet can't be bleached away

Clorox, best-known for turning things white, is red-faced over a misguided tweet that it's since yanked.

The bleach kingpin has apologized for a since-deleted tweet that showed a Clorox bottle made up of the new set of Apple's very ethnically diverse emojis that were part of the iOS 8.3 update this week.

The image was fine. But the words that Clorox choose to tweet next to it certainly weren't: "New emojis are alright but where's the bleach?"

That awkward phrasing meant to ask why bleach wasn't among the dozens of other assorted household items that were added to Apple's emojis. But in the social media world, the comments were interpreted – Clorox might say, misinterpreted – to mean, that its bleach could somehow white-out the diversity.

"Black emojis were added today. Saying this implies you'd rather the emojis be only white, by adding bleach," tweeted IAmPeace (Adrienne).

Another tweet from W.E. Blanche DuBois asked, "Did ya'll bleach away the delete button?":

For Clorox, the ill-fated tweet is a lesson in humility. The tweet, and its reference to emojis, were meant to directly appeal to generation of Millennials who are increasingly color-blind and tech-savvy. But the misguided Clorox tweet came off looking and feeling clueless.

The post went up late Wednesday afternoon shortly after the emoji announcement. After seeing the reaction, the company removed it and tweeted this apology: "Wish we could bleach away our last tweet. Didn't mean to offend - it was meant to be about all the [toilet, bathtub and red wine] emojis that could use a clean up."

In an email to USA TODAY, Clorox spokewoman Rita Gorenberg said, "We apologize to the many people who thought our tweet about the new emojis was insensitive. It was never our intention to offend. We did not mean for this to be taken as a specific reference to the diversity emojis – but we should have been more aware of the news around this. The tweet was meant to be light-hearted but it fell flat."