What were they thinking at the mattress store in San Antonio? Maybe: ‘Let’s do a funny little ad, on the cheap, for our Facebook page. Need to highlight our all-mattresses-at-twin-mattress-prices sale! Hey! The anniversary of the twin towers thing is this weekend! PERFECT!!! We’ll make two “towers” of mattresses and KNOCK THEM DOWN! Hilarious! We crack ourselves up!’

They made the ad. “What better way to remember 9/11 than with a Twin Towers sale? Right now, you can get any size mattress for a twin price!” The spokesperson, store manager Cherise Bonanno, throws her arms wide to exult over the savings. The two guys behind her dodge and manage to topple the two piles of mattresses. Bonanno shrieks, then turns to the camera and smiles demurely, “We’ll never forget.”

The resulting ad might seem endearingly amateur – if only it had been about something else.

They posted the ad. The response could not have been what was hoped for. Who hopes for death threats?

“We’ll never forget.”

As people’s thoughts turned to the three thousand horrific deaths of 9/11 and the shocking national blow that it represented, the giggly mattress ad made a lot of people very angry, very fast.

So unfortunate. If your ad goes viral, you want people to send it around it with a line something like “SO FUNNY! Didn’t you say you wanted to get a new mattress?” Not “SO DESPICABLE! Weren’t you looking for a target for your hatred and despair?”

The ad was quickly taken down (already widely captured, of course). An apology went up:

We are very sorry we have offended you. Our staff is full of military, and some relatives have passed away due to 9/11. We are promoters of peace and love.

Very bad. Takes zero responsibility. Apology focused on the reactions (offense) of others, not on their own mockery. Hides behind the credentials of staff. Puts an original twist on that’s-not-who-we-are with an irrelevant claim to be fountains of love and peace.

Then store manager Cherise Bonanno went on local news, hoping to appease the rage – and threats – they were encountering.

She said they’d be giving 30% of proceeds from their Big! Weekend! Sale! to the 9/11 Foundation. Tearfully, she said:

We are not hate. We are love. We are – somebody that stands out. We’re Miracle Mattress. We make miracles happen. And for our lives to be in danger, that’s – that’s not what we ever wanted.

It was stupid. It was a stupid idea, that we sent out. And we apologize for our stupidity, and we really hope you forgive us for what we’ve done.

Still not good. Again with the we-be-love. The strange corporate pride. Even if they’re the best mattress company in the world, how could it be true that they “make miracles happen”? OF COURSE YOU DIDN’T WANT YOUR LIVES TO BE THREATENED! No one said you did.

Oh noes!

Here she goes as far as acknowledging that it was a stupid idea. “We apologize for our stupidity” is actually a decent start at a good apology. Though then she goes right into asking for forgiveness, which as we’ve pointed out before, is overstepping.

But the Big! Weekend! Sale! got called off. The store shut down. The company owner, Mike Bonanno (apparently Cherise Bonanno’s father) put out a statement.

An Apology to All the Victims and Families of 9/11 from Miracle Mattress:

I am Mike Bonanno, Owner of Miracle Mattress. Today, I was made aware of a social media video produced by our San Antonio team highlighting a promotional sale using the upcoming 9/11 Anniversary as the incentive. The video was posted on Facebook without my knowledge or approval from our corporate office in Houston.

I say this unequivocally, with sincere regret: the video is tasteless and an affront to the men and women who lost their lives on 9/11. Furthermore, it disrespects the families who lost their loved ones and continue to struggle with the pain of this tragedy every day of their lives.

All I can say is I am deeply sorry and on behalf of the entire Miracle Mattress family, I accept responsibility for this thoughtless and crude advertisement and will immediately hold my employees accountable for this serious lapse of decency.

I am disgusted such a video would have been conceived as a promotional tool and even more incensed it was created and posted on any social media site that represents Miracle Mattress.

Effective immediately, Miracle Mattress will review our entire marketing strategy to ensure a stringent approval process will be in place to stop this from every happening again. We will also engage a personnel review to hold these employees accountable for their actions.

Miracle Mattress strives to be a community partner and I could list our community outreach events and countless donations to the communities we serve. However, this one act negates years of work and a laundry list of what we have done will not suffice.

We apologize and we promise to do better. Over the next several days, we will determine an appropriate response to express our regret and support for the 9/11 victims and their families. But for now, only a sincere apology and acceptance of our fault is warranted.

Respectfully,

Mike Bonanno

Oh noes, oh noes!

Oh boy. Zeroing in there. He says “We apologize” and he says what it is the apology is for. He notes the effect, although I will argue that part of the big reaction comes from the fact that people far removed from the victims’ families were traumatized by 9/11. He advances and then dismisses the “that’s not who we are” argument. (Better not to bring it up at all.) He says what they’ll do to keep it from happening again.

It’s a lot better. But he says he takes responsibility, then makes it clear he had NO IDEA and KNEW NOTHING ABOUT IT. (Seems believable.) And he’s going to HOLD PEOPLE ACCOUNTABLE. So he actually makes it clear he’s not really responsible and we can feel confident he’s going to HUNT DOWN those who were. THE MAN FEELS STRONGLY.

Finally, on the door of the closed mattress store, there’s a letter.

Effective immediately, our Miracle Mattress store will be closed indefinitely. We will be silent through the 9/11 anniversary to avoid any further distractions from a day of recognition and remembrance for the victims and their families. We take full responsibility for our actions and sincerely regret the hurt and pain caused by this disrespectful advertising campaign.

Miracle Mattress will deliver a public statement next week highlighting accountability actions taken within the company. We will also describe our plans to offer support for the 9/11 Memorial and victims funds. There is very little we can do to take away the hurt we have caused, but we can begin with silence through the Anniversary and then do our best to follow up with actions that reflect the seriousness of our mistake.

On a final note: there have been several fake social media accounts created in an attempt to attack commenters and those expressing outrage. Miracle Mattress, its ownership, and its employees, will not be engaging in any personal attacks or responses on any social media platform. Any account doing so is unauthorized. Additionally, I will be the only individual making official comments or statements on behalf of Miracle Mattress.

Respectfully,

Mike Bonanno

This Wal-Mart display in Florida didn’t rouse the same level of fury. Though they did have to take it down. Right away.

Fake social media accounts! That’s a lot of shrapnel from a 21-second ad.

As we’ve seen before, with the unfortunate Kristallnacht ad campaign, picking random anniversaries for ad campaigns without considering what they’re commemorating is a terrible idea. Tempted to provide Miracle Mattress with a list of historical events NOT to use for sales, but fear it would be in bad taste….

(Thanks to Vince Gatton, Ernie Limperis, and Arturo Magidin for spotting this one.)