Aflac Fires Spokesduck Following Offensive Tweets

By Bob Marshall 

If there’s anything we can learn from Twitter, it’s that it can only lead to trouble and public disgrace.

Not that comedian Gilbert Gottfried heard about Chrysler firing New Media Strategies over offensive tweets, or that this knowledge would’ve stopped him. Gottfriend, who really only gets an opportunity to be controversial these days at roasts or on VH1’s series, I Love the Decades, found refuge in Twitter, allowing him to make light of the tsunami disaster in Japan. After tweeting “Japan is really advanced. They don’t go to the beach. The beach comes to them” and “I just split up with my girlfriend, but like the Japanese say, ‘They’ll be another one floating by any minute now’,” Aflac fired Gottfried as the voice of their duck, and is currently on a nationwide search for a replacement.

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Aflac currently does 75 percent of its business in Japan, and though Gottfried doesn’t voice the duck in the country, the company saw this as a case of an employee running a-fowl (HA!). Aflac released an official statement concerning the dismissal saying, “Gilbert’s recent comments about the crisis in Japan were lacking in humor and certainly do not represent the thoughts and feelings of anyone at Aflac.” So, if people have remarked you sound like a more socially conscious version of Gottfried, now is your opportunity to follow your dreams and work with the fine folks over at Alfac’s AOR, Publicis Groupe.

Update: Gottfried has now apologized for his tweets. #toolate

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