The Durex South African brand of condoms provided us with a text book example of what not to do in PR last week. The PR company managing Durex’s Twitter account tweeted a series of offensive and misogynistic jokes igniting an outrage among bloggers and mainstream media.

To make matters worse, the company failed to immediately apologize to those offended and became very defensive spurting out excuses like Durex tweeted similar jokes in the past without complaint.

Since then, the company has changed their tune and removed the inappropriate tweets. Durex’s marketing director has also issued a formal apology.

Durex’s PR firm struck out here on several fronts. Here’s how you can learn from their mistakes:

1. Make sure that you understand the difference between ‘edgy’ and ‘offensive’ comments. As a general rule, sexist, racist, religious, and political comments are taboo.
2. Be accountable! Excuses don’t fix problems.
3. Turn a negative into a positive. Directly following the tweets, Durex squandered the opportunity to repent via Twitter for their offensive ‘jokes’ and acknowledge the importance of equality in today’s society.