Social media fail? - Sephora campaign in the spotlight

The cosmetics giant had opted for Twitter to communicate and generate buzz about the launch of its new branch in Australia.

The campaign was intended to read as "Help us #Countdowntobeauty at Westfield Sydney,” however, social media strategists left out the most crucial 'o', leaving excited shoppers with a particularly nasty swear word.

The slip-up has attracted no shortage of commentary on social media, with some even suggesting the post was actually a case of 'any publicity is good publicity'.

Although the store hasn't opened yet, Sephora Australia has more than 15,000 Instagram followers.

Sephora in the limelight of late...​

The Beauty retail giant recently found itself in hot water, having been accused by four women of Chinese descent of racial profiling. They claim the brand closed down Asian customers’ accounts during a 20% off sale, due to a belief that they would have resold discounted products for a profit.

Sephora has since defended its efforts to combat reselling, calling it 'a pervasive issue' after shutting down numerous accounts earlier this month.

However, the New York Daily News reported that attorney Doug Wigdor disagreed, stating that; “This is an egregious example of a retailer singling out individuals based on racial stereotypes.”​

According to Manhattan Federal Court suit charges, the deactivated accounts were almost exclusively associated with email addresses or names that appeared to signify Asian ethnicity, or tied to Web domains originating from Asia, documents charge.

Two of the plaintiffs named in the suit are New Yorkers: Xiao Xiao of Manhattan and Tiantian Zou of Queens.

The documents also claim that various users still have not been able to reactivate their accounts despite pleas they don’t hustle beauty products on the black market.