Social Media Case 10

This is yet another example of someone thinking they had a great idea, but it actually went horribly wrong. While I think most of these people making these videos would love for them to go viral, they do not want then to go viral for the reasons they actually do. When Miracle Mattress made that commercial, they probably did not think they would receive the backlash they did. That also seems to be another common thing among viral videos that go wrong. It seems that people are not thinking these things through when they put something out there for the world to see. It seems ridiculous that anyone would want to make money off of something that was such a tragedy, much less that they would make fun of it. Yet when Miracle Mattress tried to promote a Twin Towers sale, that is exactly what they did. They most likely did not see a problem with what they had done until the complaints started coming in.

As with other viral mess ups, they issued an apology after realizing just how much people did not like what they had done. Similar to these apologies, they tried to make it seem okay and offer money to the cause they had made fun of. You can see Cherise Bonanno’s apology here.  She admits it was a stupid idea, and you can tell she wishes they had never made the commercial. Many were outraged by the event which caused the store to close, but they are back up and running. While they must be doing okay to still be in business, they are still receiving backlash. On many of their Facebook posts, people are still commenting about the commercial and showing their disproval of the company. I also noticed while looking through their page that Miracle Mattress does not respond to any of these negative comments, and will only reply to posts that are positive or asking questions.

I think this was a case of people not thinking their actions through. It was incredibly insensitive and I hope they learned that doing things like that are not okay.