The tragedy yesterday was shocking for all Boston area natives. But for people who are also ad mavens in the making, like me, it was depressing how insensitive some national brands were on social media.
How hard would it be to have a human being monitoring a brand’s social media? It’s not like most of these brands can’t afford a social media expert or two. Besides, this tragedy happened when work was still in session across most of the USA, so someone should have been around to stop these promotional tweets from getting out in the first place.
Unfortunately, many brands had their Twitter set to automatically post and no one was able to stop their release. Other brands were able to pull their promotional tweets in time or delete them soon after.
It’s really sad when people are losing life and limb and all you get from Burger King is a promotion for coffee.
https://twitter.com/beefsteakcharly/status/324056423631831040
In contrast to Burger King, fast food giants like Wendy’s and Taco Bell quickly deleted their tweets. But they weren’t able to stop them from going up in the first place. McDonald’s was one of the only major fast food chains to directly respond to the tragedy.
It isn’t all bad in ad land, though. Some New England based companies did more than respond– they acted with heart. Local restaurant chains Fire+Ice and Joe’s American Bar & Grill passed out food to officers and emergency crew.
On the national level, Southwest Airlines was quick to accommodate people, giving homage to the age-old saying that actions speak louder than words.
This type of response shows the importance of the human element in branding. It’s a reminder that the best brands are driven by interaction and an emotional core–they aren’t mindless robots.
rAdvertising 