Sad news in the world of music yet again (what IS it with musicians lately?) Being a long-standing fan of Prince myself, I was curious to see how the media and marketers were going to handle this latest tragedy. So far, the quality of their “heartfelt” reactions is somewhat mixed.
A better example: The night when the news came in, Stephen Colbert lead with an intro mentioning The Queen’s 90th birthday, a few jokes, and then took his seat. It seemed odd that he hadn’t mentioned Prince’s death. But seems he was saving that for a discussion with his musical director John Batiste, who shared an amusing personal story before all the stage lights were changed to purple. Nice.
On the twitter front, as one might expect, corporate tweets have so far run the gamut from sensitive and well done to, well, let’s just say some thought twice about it and removed them. No doubt something to do with the negative comments received.
A few of the better ones:
Bottom line? Please, if your brand feels a sincere connection to social happenings, and you have something to say that adds emotional engagement that your consumers will appreciate, then by all means, go ahead. If it looks like nothing but self-promotion (and boy, will they know when it does) then it might be best to let your condolences rest in peace
