More than three days after Darwin the monkey made his appearance in a Toronto Ikea, the chain finally acknowledged the incident on social media, with a relatively sober Facebook post.
“We believe in helping to create a better everyday life for the many people, and as of this past Sunday this was unexpectedly extended to a little monkey that’s captured the hearts of people around the world,” read the status update, accompanied by the above photo.
“We hope for the best for Darwin in his new home at Story Book Farm Primate Sanctuary, and to help out we have made a donation to help create a better everyday life for him and his new little and not so little friends.”
The tone of the update certainly contrasted with the relentlessly irreverent tone of the online discussion surrounding Darwin — or the more serious debates that followed regarding whether he should be returned to his emotional owner.
Before around noon on Wednesday, though, the company had been conspicuously quiet about it — even as the @IKEACanada account on Twitter promoted its Christmas trees and holiday lights.
A few Twitter users had previously suggested the idea of a donation to Darwin’s interim home in Sunderland, Ont.
The amount of Ikea’s contribution was not disclosed. But perhaps the relationship can be sealed with some trademark Ikea umlauts, like Störy Böök.
While waiting for head office to break the silence, though, a few of the U.S. stores with individual Twitter accounts acknowledged Darwin in a different way.
We think #ikeamonkey started a trend. Now #ikeafox thinks he can sit in our restaurant like regular folks. ow.ly/i/1ecQt
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IKEA Brooklyn (@IKEA_Brooklyn) December 10, 2012
@IKEA_Brooklyn Hipster
Hey #ikeamonkey stop by #IKEA_LA, no need for a shearling coat, we'd love to see you in some sunglasses!
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(@IKEA_LA) December 10, 2012@JordanA_KVUE @IKEAmonkey Did you see what we found @IKEA_Round_Rock? http://t.co/MtijJjuP
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IKEA Round Rock (@IKEA_Round_Rock) December 10, 2012Apparently, all of the cool monkeys shop at IKEA ! examiner.com/slideshow/ikea…
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IKEA Pittsburgh (@IKEAPittsburgh) December 10, 2012Your #IKEAMonkey tweets are hilarious. We're happy that he's safe, and that as far as we've read neither human nor primate were injured.
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IKEA ORLANDO (@IKEAOrlando) December 10, 2012
