The country is still in shock and mourning over last week’s Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. Some companies and brands opted to send their condolences; others chose the sensible route of just staying quiet.
You would think by now that brands would understand how social media works and that brand would understand a certain necessary level of human decency and respect in the wake of disasters and tragedies. But no. Apparently these are things that some brands still need to work on.
Here are some examples embarrassing, distasteful and completely inappropriate brand responses to the Sandy Hook massacre.
Mutual of Omaha: Probably not the best time to be reminding people about purchasing life insurance for their families. 
(Image via @ianfitzpatrick)
Kmart: Hopefully this was a dumb copy and paste error and a lack of proof reading. Either way it’s bad and another reason why brands should just keep quiet and let people mourn in peace. 
(Image via @blagica)
NRA: It’s one thing to be respectfully quiet and it’s another to shut down your social media presence in order to hide. The usually vocal NRA has gone cowardly silent on social media in the wake of the Sandy Hook shooting. It has taken down its Facebook page and the last tweet on it’s Twitter account on Dec. 14 was about its holiday giveaway. 
(Image via @nra)
More in Marketing
Future of Marketing Briefing: The case for and against the death of the big brand ad
Marketing has a new favorite argument: is it still smarter to talk to a million people at once, or to find the thousand people they already trust?
Lifestyle brand Stanley 1913 uses AI behind the scenes — but execs claim it won’t touch ad creative
Not every brand is racing to let AI anywhere near its ads. Stanley draws the line there on purpose.
TikTok’s Kat Marquez unpacks NBA and WNBA creator deal
TikTok’s latest move to secure its share of the leagues’ growing audiences sees it play gatekeeper between creators and rights holders.