The rock band, Green Day, wrote this best-selling song with the same title due to a personal tragedy. 

What marketers need to remember on this last day of September is that marketing a tragedy is most likely to end in tragedy.

September reminds America of its greatest tragedy – 9/11.

During one such September, AT&T tweeted the message “Never Forget” along with a photo of a hand against the New York skyline. 

The hand was shown holding up a smartphone to take a photo of the memorial at Ground Zero, where the twin towers used to stand.

Twitter users immediately responded, calling the product placement “tacky”, “terrible”, “gross”, and so on.

That tweet was deleted within an hour and AT&T apologized immediately.

During another September, HBO promoted its digital HBO GO service by suggesting that viewers “remember all the reasons we love NY” by watching an old episode of Sex and the City.

The list of insensitive marketing of tragedies is endless.

Tragedies are often too tempting to weave your tale into. 

Don’t!