# Coca Cola flag twin towers retail display **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 9, 2016, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coca-cola-flag-twin-towers-retail-display/765412 "2016-09-09T03:33:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2016, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coca-cola-flag-twin-towers-retail-display/765412/21 "2016-09-10T05:36:13Z")
> [@kopek](#): > > No outrage. Not really selling me on Walmart but I’ve seen far offensive things in many places. I was working at a grocery store when 9/11 happened (and was off work that day). A few weeks later, I saw a display of “United We Stand Hand Soap”. :eek: It ended up getting clearanced down to the point where they were almost giving it away, at which time it finally started selling. And there were all the t-shirts with pictures of the burning towers. ---
**Author:** ![Merneith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/57b2e6/32.png) [@Merneith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merneith)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2016, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coca-cola-flag-twin-towers-retail-display/765412/22 "2016-09-10T05:42:14Z")
> [@Lord\_Feldon](#): > > It’s better than [this mattress commercial](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZmM-2gj5Gc). This mattress shop ended up having to close down “indefinitely”. I’m not surprised. That ad was … jawdropping. I knew they were going to get slammed by the internet (although I don’t approve of it, I knew it was inevitable.) The owner posted a fairly heartsick apology about it all. He and the chick in the ad are related, although it’s not clear how. I’m guessing her life is hell about now. > **[Mattress Shop Closes After Making Absurdly Offensive 9/11 Ad](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/911-mattress-commercial_n_57d24ecee4b06a74c9f40c65?section=)** > > After the ad sparked a backlash, the store owner announced Miracle Mattress in San Antonio will close "indefinitely." > [@Huffpo article in link](#): > > Mike Bonanno issued an apology on Facebook on Thursday: > > - 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.\* > > “I am disgusted such a video would have been conceived as a promotional tool,” he wrote. “And even more incensed it was created and posted on any social media site that represents Miracle Mattress.” Italics in the original, quoting from the mattress shop’s FB page. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2016, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coca-cola-flag-twin-towers-retail-display/765412/23 "2016-09-10T05:53:58Z")
For those of you who don’t get it, you don’t depict the towers still standing. If you pay attention to the situation, you’d notice we don’t do that. It’s always considered crass. Yes, I think they just needed a place to put the Coke Zero cans, and so came up with making them the towers. Still should have been obvious that people would get offended. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2016, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coca-cola-flag-twin-towers-retail-display/765412/24 "2016-09-10T06:20:39Z")
On September 11, 2015, Devo’s Jerry Casale got married (to a woman young enough to be his granddaughter :dubious: ) and they had a 9/11-themed wedding, with box cutters as wedding favors. :eek: I am not making this up. > **[Devo’s Jerry Casale Says 9/11-Themed Wedding Cake & Party Favors Were a...](https://www.billboard.com/music/rock/devos-jerry-casale-911-themed-wedding-cake-party-favors-surprise-6693440/)** > > Devo co-founder, singer and bassist Gerald Vincent “Jerry” Casale was married modestly to Krista Napp on Friday, Sept. 11, but thanks to a 9/11-themed ceremony that followed has now cau… ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2016, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coca-cola-flag-twin-towers-retail-display/765412/25 "2016-09-10T07:11:55Z")
> [@Lord\_Feldon](#): > > It’s better than [this mattress commercial](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZmM-2gj5Gc). Am I wrong for laughing at that? ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2016, 9:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coca-cola-flag-twin-towers-retail-display/765412/26 "2016-09-10T09:31:49Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > On September 11, 2015, Devo’s Jerry Casale got married (to a woman young enough to be his granddaughter :dubious: ) and they had a 9/11-themed wedding, with box cutters as wedding favors. > > :eek: > > I am not making this up. > > [Devo's Jerry Casale: 9/11-Themed Wedding Cake & Party Favors Were a 'Surprise' | Billboard](http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/rock/6693440/devos-jerry-casale-911-themed-wedding-cake-party-favors-surprise) This sing makes song more sense now [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/F2tZqXWa7no/hqdefault.jpg?sqp=-oaymwEmCOADEOgC8quKqQMa8AEB-AHeAoAChgKKAgwIABABGH8gTCgfMA8=&rs=AOn4CLDq0YJJi7K2p3YPblMLVvw7hCf3Ww "DEVO- mongoloid") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2tZqXWa7no) ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2016, 9:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coca-cola-flag-twin-towers-retail-display/765412/27 "2016-09-10T09:35:01Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > Am I wrong for laughing at that? No, not that funny but an A for effort. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2016, 11:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coca-cola-flag-twin-towers-retail-display/765412/28 "2016-09-10T11:19:14Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > Would have been worse if it was a Kingford display. Room for me in your hand basket? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2016, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coca-cola-flag-twin-towers-retail-display/765412/29 "2016-09-10T11:46:39Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > Still should have been obvious that people would get offended. Only because people get offended at EVERYTHING. They will get offended if you don’t smile at a thing they think you should smile at. Or do smile at a thing they’ve decided nobody should be smiling at. They will make stuff up that never happened and be offended that other people aren’t respecting that made up thing. Fuck 'em all. ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2016, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coca-cola-flag-twin-towers-retail-display/765412/30 "2016-09-12T13:17:44Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > For those of you who don’t get it, you don’t depict the towers still standing. If you pay attention to the situation, you’d notice we don’t do that. It’s always considered crass. I guess your crass meter was pegging all weekend, then. Even the Sunday comics had various tributes depicting the towers standing. Images of the towers are almost ubiquitous. Count me in as one of those that don’t get it. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2016, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coca-cola-flag-twin-towers-retail-display/765412/31 "2016-09-12T14:35:47Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > Only because people get offended at EVERYTHING. They will get offended if you don’t smile at a thing they think you should smile at. Or do smile at a thing they’ve decided nobody should be smiling at. They will make stuff up that never happened and be offended that other people aren’t respecting that made up thing. > > Fuck 'em all. I don’t know if I’m offended (I don’t tend to take offence easily), but it seems pretty fucked up to me to using imagery of a disaster to sell Coke. I guess not all people see it like that, but it just strikes me as really, really bizarre. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2016, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coca-cola-flag-twin-towers-retail-display/765412/32 "2016-09-12T14:56:03Z")
While we’re discussing offense and what constitutes “tribute”, check out [this photo](http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/angelcerv25/13465543/31465/31465_600.jpg), which surfaced shortly after 9/11. If you’re not excited about clicking, it shows a group of people posing behind a sand sculpture that depicts a sky scraper being struck by an airplane. [The artist is opposed to terrorism, and reportedly does sculptures like this that relate to contemporary events.](http://orissadiary.com/inerview/sudarsan-patnaik.asp) But memorializing a tragedy with art that depicts the actual moment of awfulness tends not to be well-received by the general public. Imagine for example the hue and cry that would arise if an art exhibit depicted a chunk of JFK’s skull sailing through the air a moment after the impact of the bullet. ---
**Author:** ![Eonwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eonwe/32/240_2.png) [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2016, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coca-cola-flag-twin-towers-retail-display/765412/33 "2016-09-12T15:22:22Z")
It’s an inappropriate display . . . . . . but frankly I have a hard time understanding where the arbitrary lines are between inappropriate reference, reverence, jingoism, patriotism, commercialism, maudlin emotional pandering, political manipulation, and Orwellian newspeak. In other words, I am not surprised that people felt that this was a reasonable way to commemorate 9/11, thump their chests patriotically, as well as sell a few cans of soda pop at the same time. It happens every day in thousands of ways across our country, in both more subtle and more overt ways than this. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2016, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coca-cola-flag-twin-towers-retail-display/765412/34 "2016-09-12T16:04:06Z")
> [@Eonwe](#): > > It’s an inappropriate display . . . > > . . . but frankly I have a hard time understanding where the arbitrary lines are between inappropriate reference, reverence, jingoism, patriotism, commercialism, maudlin emotional pandering, political manipulation, and Orwellian newspeak. This may have been a few of those, but the most applicable line in this case isn’t arbitrary or hard to find at all. It is always crass to use references to violence and death, suffered by others, to sell your product, and this was objectively doing that. No one can argue that a display _of_ product, with manufacturer and retailer brandings imprinted on the referential banner, is not a sales device. Other 9/11-related expressions may indeed be jingoistic, maudlin, or manipulative (for example, a similar cheap banner, without the commercial logos and not associated with specific product), but those are statements at least arguably _about_ the event, issues of aesthetics and politics–fuzzy by definition. ---
**Author:** ![Eonwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eonwe/32/240_2.png) [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2016, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coca-cola-flag-twin-towers-retail-display/765412/35 "2016-09-12T16:17:49Z")
> [@Peremensoe](#): > > This may have been a few of those, but the most applicable line in this case isn’t arbitrary or hard to find at all. It is always crass to use references to violence and death, suffered by others, to sell your product, and this was objectively doing that. No one can argue that a display _of_ product, with manufacturer and retailer brandings imprinted on the referential banner, is not a sales device. > > Other 9/11-related expressions may indeed be jingoistic, maudlin, or manipulative (for example, a similar cheap banner, without the commercial logos and not associated with specific product), but those are statements at least arguably _about_ the event, issues of aesthetics and politics–fuzzy by definition. Eh. When our multi-billion dollar sports industry depends upon the exact same kind of flag-waving patriotism to help generate dollars, I don’t see much of a difference. American flags, the national anthem, veterans on the field, air-force flyovers as marketing tools to sell football and Budweiser while soldiers are busy dying overseas is par for the course. To me it’s obvious that a 9/11 Coke display is on the wrong side of a line. But I also totally get why that might not be obvious to everybody. ---
**Author:** ![slash2k](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@slash2k](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slash2k)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2016, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coca-cola-flag-twin-towers-retail-display/765412/36 "2016-09-12T16:49:48Z")
How do people feel about the Budweiser “Twin Towers” Super Bowl ads (Clydesdales bow towards NYC skyline, tag “We’ll never forget,” then Bud logo appears)? 2011 version at [- YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-_qRS4Li7A) ; there was another very similar one in 2002. I’ve seen it lauded as “beautiful,” “breath-taking,” “emotional” and similar, but never “offensive.” ETA: both 2002 and 2011 versions at [Budweiser Remakes 9/11 Commercial For Tenth Anniversary](http://www.adrants.com/2011/09/budweiser-remakes-911-commercial-for.php) ---
**Author:** ![Grey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b782af/32.png) [@Grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grey)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2016, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coca-cola-flag-twin-towers-retail-display/765412/37 "2016-09-12T17:00:08Z")
How about mawkish? ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2016, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coca-cola-flag-twin-towers-retail-display/765412/38 "2016-09-12T17:52:31Z")
Completely overblown reaction. Imho It’s a display of soda. They meant well. People are so easily offended these days. Chill ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2016, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coca-cola-flag-twin-towers-retail-display/765412/39 "2016-09-12T18:03:58Z")
Exploiting a national tragedy to sell beer is just as bad as doing so to sell soda. The only difference is the use of the horses. ---
**Author:** ![appleaday](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/41988e/32.png) [@appleaday](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/appleaday)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2016, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coca-cola-flag-twin-towers-retail-display/765412/40 "2016-09-12T18:13:13Z")
Not really bothered by the soda display or the beer ad, but that mattress commercial was just vile. As for the wedding with the 9/11 theme – I just don’t have words for that. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coca-cola-flag-twin-towers-retail-display/765412.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coca-cola-flag-twin-towers-retail-display/765412.md?page=3)