Paint suppliers Dulux was forced to apologise after its new partnership with Tottenham got off to a rocky start by mocking the Premier League club on Twitter.
Spurs announced that Dulux had become the club’s official paint supplier, with the company’s famous dog getting a tour of the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and Hotspur Way training ground.
But they were soon mocked by their new partner in hastily-deleted tweets, with the social media team hitting the wrong tone.
Responding to other users’ tweets, the company made fun of the club’s lack of recent silverware, posting a picture of an empty trophy cabinet being for sale, then made a barb about the club’s defenders.
In a reply to a tweet asking whether the Dulux dog could play at centre-back, the company tweeted: “He might do a better job”.
Dulux eventually commented on the inappropriate tweets, apologising to Spurs fans.
The company said on Twitter: “We’re deeply sorry for the posts from Dulux this morning in response to the announcement of our relationship with @SpursOfficial. These do not reflect how proud we are to be the Official Paint Supplier of the Club.
“We’re investigating what happened and apologise to all Spurs fans.”
The tweets certainly made a splash as Dulux was the second top trend on Twitter in the UK.
Spurs said the partnership will see the club “benefit from the unrivalled expertise in paint and colour” of the country’s leading paint supplier, with all club buildings getting a facelift using specific paint colour matches.
Jose Mourinho was apparently in the dark in his press conference ahead of Friday’s trip to Everton.
When he was asked about the Dulux dog, Mourinho replied: “What’s that?”
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here