It’s good to see companies pay tribute to the victims of the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks. That said, if you’re going to do it, you’d better make sure that no one can interpret your tribute as cheap product promotion. This is the mistake that AT&T made on Wednesday when it posted a picture of a smartphone recording a video of the 9/11 Memorial lights shown from across the Hudson River alongside the caption “Never Forget.” Just hours after AT&T posted the picture on its Twitter account, it issued a formal statement saying that it apologized “to anyone who felt our post was in poor taste.” The company went on to explain that “the image was solely meant to pay respect to those affected by the 9/11 tragedy.” The image that AT&T originally posted on its Twitter account follows below.
UPDATE: AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson has issued his own personal apology for the image, which he says fell “woefully short” of the company’s standards for tasteful tributes to mass tragedies.
