Last week — JFC, was it only last week?! — Adobe accidentally endorsed GamerGate. Or at least, they appeared to be endorsing GamerGate, thanks to a misunderstanding on the part of Adobe’s social media team and some pretty impressive spin from GamerGaters.
Back when GamerGate was trying to salt and burn the Gawker network over claims that it endorsed bullying of nerds — seriously though, this was only a week ago?! — Adobe, along with Mercedes, BMW, and other Gawker advertisers, was targeted for a consumer action campaign. In response to GamerGate tweets asking if Adobe supported bullying, an Adobe social media staffer naturally was all, “Obvs no, guys.” The unnamed staffer also said Adobe would be asking Gawker to remove the company logo from their sites. This was interpreted by GamerGate as a withdrawal of advertising, and while Adobe clarified that they had never been Gawker advertisers in the first place and their logo was therefore being inappropriately used, the notion that Adobe tacitly approved of GamerGate calling out Gawker persisted.
Today, Adobe issued an apology, clarifying that there was no intention to endorse GamerGate or to call out Gawker. It’s a well-written apology. A nice bit of PR and feels genuine, besides. Their Bully Mural Project, an anti-bullying, collaborative, digital art project is key to the corporate image they want to project:
We are not and have never been aligned with Gamergate. We reject all forms of bullying, including the harassment of women by individuals associated with Gamergate. Every human being deserves respect, regardless of gender, orientation, appearance, personal hobbies or anything else that makes individuals who they are.
Thank you, Adobe. You did the right thing.
