Dive Brief:
- SpaghettiOs, the canned pasta brand owned by Campbell Soup Co., found itself on the receiving end of social-media outrage after tweeting an image on the anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attacks that thousands of people found bizarre and offensive.
- The tweet featured a cheesy cartoon of a piece of pasta holding the American flag and grinning like an idiot. The caption read “Take a moment to remember #PearlHarbor with us." Given what should be the somber nature of the anniversary—some 2,400 Americans were killed in the Pearl Harbor attack—the image of the cheery pasta piece was jarring.
- The offensive tweet spread rapidly. Celebrities such as Wil Wheaton, who has nearly 2.5 million followers on Twitter, retweeted the image and mocked the brand. Others took to satirizing the tweet by inserting it in images of other tragic moments in American history such as JFK's funeral and the 9/11 attacks.
Dive Insight:
We, like everyone else, have to wonder what in the world the folks at SpaghettiOs were thinking. The company apologized, but hasn't explained how something so incredibly tone deaf could make its way online. We don't wish to defend SpaghettiOs' social-media team, but we don't find this event all that surprising. Our sense is that Americans are increasingly cut off from their history, and have grown accustomed to thinking of national holidays in terms of marketing opportunities.
Consider if you will, when was the last time—if ever—that you heard anyone complain about the idea of a "Memorial Day sale"? Just a few decades ago it was common for older people to foam at the mouth when someone used something so sacred to make a few bucks. How about Veteran's Day? How many of us today think of it as anything more than a minor holiday? Even those of us who are veterans tend not to "celebrate" the holiday. And would anyone have been offended by the SpaghettiOs tweet if it had gone out on the Fourth of July? Does anyone still think of the Fourth of July as a moment of defiance in the face of oppression? Or have we replaced the image of a nation born in blood with one of an extended weekend of pie and picnics?
After Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, pulling America into the Second World War, our president said that December 7 was a "date which will live in infamy." But FDR was wrong. Americans don't remember. And perhaps that doesn't matter. For as another president said, when speaking of another battle from long ago, it is not the memory of civilians that hold a moment in sacredness. "... we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract."