AT&T one of the largest phone companies in the United States was attacked by its twitter followers this afternoon after posting this photo.
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The basic idea of the advert was to prove to their customers and public the company’s awareness and remembrance of 9/11. However using a tragedy as a way of marketing their products gave a negative impact. As USA Today mentioned in one of their articles, “Social media users quickly responded with vitriol, accusing AT&T of a ‘disgusting’, ‘tacky’ and ‘shameless’ marketing tactic”. It was definitely not an occasion for a marketing strategy or product placement.
As consequence to the social media attack, AT&T removed the photo from Twitter and publicly apologized to anyone who felt offended by their image. The major consequence faced was the damage to their own reputation; since the public will now remember them as the company that offended a major serious tragedy. The use of such a delicate tragedy to gain the public’s attention demonstrated the weakness and lack of business ethics the company possess. The telephone company certainly didn’t expect this crisis to happen, an acceptable way to confront it was to apologize, accept the mistake and avoid any further misinterpretations.