Home Depot Apologizes for a Tweet That Offends

The message, part of a college football promotion, included a picture of two African-American men and a person in a gorilla suit drumming on overturned buckets, with a caption that read, “which drummer is not like the others?”

The tweet, which went out midday on Thursday, was quickly deleted. Within hours, Home Depot apologized publicly and said it had fired the people who sent it out.

“We have zero tolerance for anything so stupid and offensive,” Stephen Holmes, director of corporate communications for Home Depot, said in an email statement. “The outside agency that created the tweet and the Home Depot associate who posted it have been terminated. We’re also closely reviewing our social media procedures to determine how this could have happened, and how to ensure it never happens again.”

The home improvement company declined to name the outside agency.

This is not the first time a company has tried to make amends for tweets that were called insensitive or inappropriate by readers and customers. In 2011, the insurance company Aflac fired Gilbert Gottfried, the comedian who gave voice to its signature duck in the company’s commercials, after Mr. Gottfried made a series of jokes about a devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan on his personal Twitter account.

Japan accounted for 75 percent of Aflac’s revenue.

By late Friday afternoon, Home Depot’s Twitter feed displayed what appeared to be a lengthy and uninterrupted stream of contrition.