Gap's amazing response to racial slur on Sikh model

Gap's recent advertisement, which was created with the sole idea to spread love during the holiday season, has been defaced with racist remarks in a New York City subway station.

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For those who came in late, Gap Inc.'s recent drive 'Make Love' features several multi-cultural figures in Gap garments. And one of the posters featured turbaned Sikh, Waris Ahluwahlia, next to Quentin Jones, a model and filmmaker, with the caption that read "Make Love." followed by the brand's logo. But an unidentified New York vandal crossed out "Make Love" only to replace it with "Make Bombs."
Shockingly, someone also wrote "Please stop driving taxis" under the ad's caption.
To ensure the situation didn't spiral out of control, Gap asked Arsalan Iftikhar (@TheMuslimGuy), who had alerted them about the defaced ad, to send a direct message which would enable them to talk privately about the issue and share the details of the location of the billboard to remove the racist graffiti.
While many appreciate Gap's smart move to fix the vandalized ad, the brand is also being lauded for being quick to use the commercial as its profile picture on Twitter to exhibit their support for diversity and to revile the racist remarks. Impressed by the show of support and solidarity, many took to Twitter to extol Gap thus turning racist slur into social media accomplishment. So yes, Gap's quick reaction not only shows that it is proactive, but also concerned and in control of the situation.
While Jesse Washington applauded Gap for bridging the gap between whites, non-whites by posting "Racist defaces Gap ad featuring Sikh model; Gap responds by making the ad even more prominent," on Twitter, Karthik Srinivasan put forth the brand's striking marketing strategy. "Simple, topical real-time marketing by GAP," his tweet read. Stefanie too echoed the same sentiment, she posted, "This is TOO nice to not share. @gap this worked ima new loyal shopper."
According to a leading website, a few members of the Sikh community have also begun a "Thank you, Gap" Facebook campaign to praise the company for roping in a Sikh model in their ads. Agreed, the company has played a key role in raising "the profile of Sikhs in ways the community couldn't have accomplished with its limited resources," (as mentioned in a letter addressed to the company by the Sikh community), but its recent response to the ad portrays them as a responsible corporation and strengthens the company's positive image.
Is there a lesson for other companies to learn from this particular incident? Has Gap succeeded in explaining how imperative it is for a company have a damage control plan in place, which can be executed speedily to protect its reputation?