Just after noon on Sunday, Coffee Meets Bagel sent out this breezy, if unfortunate, message to it’s East Coast users:
Coffee Meets Bagel
“It’s Fag Day! Hoist your colors and don’t forget to LIKE today’s Bagel!
Meant to reference Flag Day, the boo-boo occurred right in the middle of Washington’s 40th Capital Pride Parade on Sunday, which will be accompanied by pride celebrations in several other East Coast cities in the weeks to come, The Washington Post reports.
This definitely and without question meets the definition of “bad timing.”
Arum Kang, one of the Coffee Meets Bagel’s founders, told the Washington Post’s Lisa Bonos that the company caught the misspelling within minutes after the notifications went out, and the error was corrected for other time zones.
“It’s the first time we’ve had to correct a mistake,” Kang notes. “Clearly it was a typo, but obviously a really bad typo.”
Twitter users were quick to notice, and quick to voice their displeasure, Metro notes.
Alyssa Zauderer:
“Got a notification from @coffeeMbagel saying today was ‘fag day.’ I’m disgusted at the audacity to say that during pride. #coffeemeetsbagel.”
Andrea Apuy:
“#typoffensive at Coffee Meets Bagel. #spellcheckisnotacopyeditor @coffeeMbagel.”
Rachel Rizzo:
“If anyone is job hunting–I think a social media position will be opening up at #coffeemeetsbagel pretty soon. Like, tomorrow. #FLAGday.”
Cosmopolitan readers also had their say on Twitter.
Richard McNeil:
“Swing and a huge miss Coffee Meets Bagel #whoopsie #FlagDay.”
Mark Falconer:
“Omg, someone at Coffee Meets Bagel is getting fired.”
The company took to Twitter, and also sent out a email to all of its members, Metro reports. It read, in part:
“I would like to apologize wholeheartedly for the message you received this afternoon. The misspelling of Flag Day was a mistake and a complete oversight. We’re updating our process to ensure something like this does not happen again.
Coffee Meets Bagel, as a company and as individual employees, celebrates the LGBTQ community and would never use such a word.”
Users of the app get to view a person’s profile at noon each day, accompanied by a reminder to check out the Bagel of the day. Kang says the messages usually say something like:
“I know you’re busy, but take a minute to check this Bagel out,” or “Take a lunch break and check out this Bagel.” Holidays might also get a reference. The company is definitely going to be more careful when it comes to proofreading, Kang says.
“We’re doing what we can as a team to revisit our process,” Kang says. “We want to make sure it doesn’t happen in the future.”
Coffee Meets Bagel was launched in 2012, TechCrunch reports. What makes this company unusual is that it only sends out only person each day by using friend-of-a-friend connections listed on Facebook. If both parties like their match, the company gives the hopeful couple a discount on a first date related activity, like going for coffee or having a drink.
Users have 24 hours to respond before it expires and a new potential match is posted the next day.
