Honoring Events The Right Way

This year, December 7th was the 72nd anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. With it being such a big part of the history of the US, many people were mentioning it on social media. Many companies sent out tweets about the day as well. One of the companies that tweeted about Pearl Harbor was Campbell Soup's SpaghettiOs. The tweet they sent out ended up getting them into some trouble, and social media exploded. The tweet is to the right.

Many, many people expressed their anger on twitter, saying how offensive the tweet was. They thought it was absurd to use a mascot for the brand to represent an important moment in our nation's history, that is not to be joked about. The tweet was only live for about 10 hours, because the company took it down soon after they put it up. They then released an apology, saying, "We apologize for our recent tweet in remembrance of Pearl Harbor Day. We meant to pay respect, not to offend."

This is not the first time that a company has tweeted out something that has not been taken well by social media users. I did some more research, and found out that AT&T has also recently gotten into trouble for tweeting something about 9-11 that didn't seem respectful. They tweeted out a picture of one of their phones showing a picture of the lights shining where the World Trade Center would be. This tweet is to the left.

A lot of the reason tweets like these have gotten companies into trouble is the hidden promotions they have in them. It almost seems like, to me at least, that the goal of the images is to notice the logo of the company, or the product, and not actually remember our history. I think this shows that advertisements and promotions in America today have become overwhelming. Companies will go to any extreme to advertise their product. It seems like all they really care about is the money. It is like what we talked about in class today, about how TV shows are only made based whether or not advertisers think that people will watch, thus watching the commercials. I think that it was wrong for these companies to use these important dates in history as a scheme to promote their products, but I think it is what America has become - a money making machine, and it is inevitable.