The Fine Line of Using a Tragedy in Marketing

The different examples could be seen in US this year. Many brands seemed to be trying to jump on the 9/11 “bandwagon” in social media. They want their content to be sort of “relevant.” But they have to walk a very thin line on the best of days. And on days like 9/11, they need to be ultra cautious. And if they cannot be then perhaps their social media content teams can take such a day off.

AT&T is unfortunately such negative example.

AT&T (@ATT) twitters at 7:18pm - 11 Sep 13:

We apologize to anyone who felt our post was in poor taste. The image was solely meant to pay respect to those affected by the 9/11 tragedy.

(https://twitter.com/ATT/status/377843723058835456)

Also good article describing thing this topic at the faculty blog of University of Pittsburgh Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business