Have brands learned their lesson about mixing tragedy with marketing?

Some brands seem to be staying silent on social media on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, while others are being extremely cautious. (Update)

Ragan Insider Premium Content
Ragan Insider Content

As of Thursday morning, Coca-Cola hadn’t tweeted a word about the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Same goes for Pepsi. Likewise McDonald’s, Pizza Hut, Visa, Nike, Bank of America, Starbucks, Samsung, and many of the other biggest brands on Twitter.

AT&T, the brand that famously inserted an image of a smartphone into a 9/11 tribute last year, did post a tribute tweet, but kept it entirely somber and non-promotional this time:

pic.twitter.com/vRLHZXxF19

— AT&T (@ATT) September 11, 2014

Instead of vitriol, the brand got responses such as this:

@ATT nice. Way better than last years picture.

— Hoezay (@hoezayismyname) September 11, 2014

To read the full story, log in.
Become a Ragan Insider member to read this article and all other archived content.
Sign up today

Already a member? Log in here.
Learn more about Ragan Insider.