Martha Stewart's series of distressed tweets over her broken iPad has created an online sensation. Now the media magnate wants the Twitterverse to lighten up – and learn how to take a joke.
Stewart took to Twitter Wednesday after dropping an iPad that she said was a gift from Apple founder Steve Jobs. She initially asked “does one call Apple to come and pick it up or do I take it?”
A day later, she tweeted that she was still waiting for Apple to pick up her shattered iPad. She then said, “Apple Public Relations is mad at me for tweeting about my iPad and how to get it fixed!” Later, she clarified she had only been making a “silly joke about repairs and my frustration.”
On Friday morning, Stewart made clear that she knows Apple doesn’t make house calls.
“Of course I know that. I’ve been in Apple stores!” she told TODAY anchors via phone.
“Twitter is very, very interesting because there are people who love it when you joke, and there are people who take you seriously and don’t have a clue,” she said. “So it’s been going on and on and on and it’s actually very fun.”
But Stewart admitted it wasn’t very fun for her staff, who got mad at her for possibly jeopardizing the working relationship her company has with Apple.
“They’re like you, they think I’m having a feud with Apple,” Stewart said. "I’m not having a feud with Apple."
Stewart went on about how much she "loves" her iPad, prompting Savannah Guthrie to ask, "Are you trying to get a free iPad, Martha?"
Though there's no feud, it doesn’t mean everything is fine.
“Well, no – my iPad is still broken,” she said about her beloved electronic device, a gift that came with a personal note she still has from Jobs.
“When I dropped my iPad I was so mad at myself for breaking something that I can’t live without," she said.
While Stewart's ordeal drew its share of sympathetic fans, it also attracted detractors:
But Stewart has no regrets about sharing her frustrations over Twitter, her "favorite mode of communication with the world for a long time.”
The experience even sparked an innovative idea for the businesswoman: a same-day repair service.