Fashion retailer Joy criticised for 'offensive' bipolar disorder comments on ...

^{The 'offensive' card Photo: Twitter}

@poeticfeminist Then if you know anyone with bipolar disorder, don't buy it for them. PROBLEM SOLVED.

- JOY (@joythestore) September 20, 2014

@poeticfeminist They'll like it one minute and hate it the next?

- JOY (@joythestore) September 20, 2014

We at JOY like to start conversations and create dialogue, we try to be irreverent, sometimes we get it wrong. Please accept our apologies.

- JOY (@joythestore) September 21, 2014

The retailer issued an apology for the comments after being inundated with messages from angry customers.

Humour is an excellent way to break down ignorance around #MentalHealth. But not when it consists of cheap mockery! #Joycott

- #BlackDogRunner (@bdogrunner) September 21, 2014

@joythestore Hey, I'm a former customer of yours with bipolar and I'm DEFINITELY not laughing. Taking my custom elsewhere. #joycott

- Elly Louise McCabe (@ellymccabe) September 22, 2014

Rule 1 of retail - if a customer finds it offensive, it is. Rule 2 -never underestimate the power of social media #joycott #mentalhealth

- Hazlitt (@iamhazlitt) September 21, 2014

UK-based charity, Rethink Mental Illness (RMI), said the remarks were 'deeply offensive and insensitive'.

'It's disappointing that Joy is selling a product that trivialises mental illness in such a flippant way ... but its subsequent remarks on Twitter were even worse,' said RMI CEO Mark Winstanley.

'Bipolar disorder is a serious mental illness which affects around 1% of the population, and it can be very difficult to live with.

'The last thing people who have the condition need is a company like Joy making fun of it in such an obnoxious and aggressive way.

'There is already so much stigma around mental illness, and comments like this just make things worse.'