Memorial Day is a time to give thanks to the brave Americans who serve our country, and honor those who’ve fallen in the line of duty. But sadly, the national holiday has also become a vehicle for companies to promote their brands on social media. Ugh.
Disturbingly, we’ve seen it plenty of times before — most recently on MLK day, when companies callously advertised themselves using #MLK on Twitter. Sure, using hashtags like #MLK, #VeteransDay or #MemorialDay hugely increases the viewership of a tweet, but we still don’t get why companies think it’s okay to capitalize on what should be a solemn day of national remembrance.
We’re not saying companies can’t acknowledge Memorial Day at all; after all, it’s always nice to thank American troops and veterans for their service. Here’s an example of a nice way a brand could use the #MemorialDay hashtag:
But at the same time, there are other companies who think it’s okay to openly use American troops’ sacrifices as a way to market their brand or sell their product, and the results are seriously cringe-worthy. Here are some of today’s worst offenders.
We’ll be updating this list all day, so send the best/worst tweets and Facebook posts you find to jtaylor@observer.com.
Remember beer instead of fallen troops. Nice.
We’re hoping this gaffe was unintentional, but tweeting “Going home is not an option :)” is a really bad idea for a Memorial Day-themed ad.
Sorry, are we equating the tragic death of American troops to the death of baby pigs?
The clever pun doesn’t make this okay. (h/t Andrew Kaczynski)
Because our nation’s heroes really care that you’re able to eat cinnamon buns. (h/t Caroline Moss)
Gross. (h/t Caroline Moss)
It’s cool how people risked their lives for our freedom but MARGARITAS YOU GUYS.
