Carphone Warehouse to donate profits to Irish Autism Action after 50 Cent debacle

11 Jul 2012

Rapper 50 Cent. Image from Wikimedia Commons

Following its decision to cancel an appearance by US rapper 50 Cent at its Dundrum store in Dublin today, after the singer made a slew of comments about autism on Twitter, Carphone Warehouse plans to donate all of this week’s profits from 50 Cent’s SMS musical accessories sales in its stores throughout Ireland to Irish Autism Action.

50 Cent was scheduled to appear at its Dundrum outlet today to promote his new SMS audio headsets. However, Carphone Warehouse gave him the rap yesterday, after fans and the public alike expressed their feelings about comments he made about autism on Twitter recently.

The idea of the Dublin gig was to give 50 Cent the opportunity to promote his new SMS audio headsets that will be sold at Carphone Warehouse stores.

While 50 Cent has since issued an apology via Twitter for his comments regarding autism, Carphone Warehouse issued a statement yesterday to indicate it would be cancelling the singer’s visit to its Dundrum store.

The move came after people expressed their thoughts about the comments 50 Cent made on Twitter.

“Facebookers, we have been keeping abreast of your comments today, and understand your frustrations with 50 Cent,” read the Carphone Warehouse statement yesterday.

Today, Carphone Warehouse said it is the “exclusive” retailer of the SMS range of headphones and has decided to keep the products on the shelves and donate this week’s profits from to Irish Autism Action.

“Ourselves, and indeed our customers, were really dismayed by 50 cent’s comments,” said Peter Scott, MD of Carphone Warehouse Ireland, “and the people we listen to are our customers, we value their feedback immensely.”

Irish Autism Action has provided awareness, early detection diagnosis, education support, advocacy, counselling and other services in relation to autism since 2001.

Carmel Doyle was a long-time reporter with Silicon Republic

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