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Screengrab via @cheerios/Twitter

Brands had some amazingly bad tributes to Prince on Twitter

RIP.

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Miles Klee

Internet Culture

Posted on Apr 21, 2016   Updated on May 26, 2021, 10:00 pm CDT

Prince is dead. But if there’s one thing his highness truly enjoyed in life, it was brands and corporations profiting off his likeness.

To that end, we salute these professional social media teams for their timely, heartfelt, and appropriate tributes, which we will now rank:

Top Tier: Threadless, Bing, Lenovo, NASA, Spotify

Can’t get too mad about these, they seem pretty genuine. But it’s OK to say this stuff on your personal accounts instead. We’re not looking to Bing for answers right now, and we can’t imagine Prince using a search engine.

You Tried, Sort Of: TiVo, Best Buy, 3M, NVIDIA, Hamburger Helper

I’m not convinced these brands really give a shit about Prince—their grief is a bit generic. Don’t feel great about the integration of your logos and mascots, either.

via AdWeek

Delete Your Account: Maker’s Mark, Four Loko, Getty Images, Cheerios

You fucking serious with this shit? Trying to catch the viral sadness wave? Plastering your product directly onto a cultural tragedy? OK then!

https://twitter.com/k_a_r_a_h/status/723265373466955776

Beyond Saving: Sharon Stone

Sharon, you hashtagged this tweet with your own name. FYI.

(Sorry, this embed was not found.)

Anyway, at least Cinnabon understands.


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*First Published: Apr 21, 2016, 7:56 pm CDT

Miles Klee

Miles Klee is a novelist and web culture reporter. The former editor of the Daily Dot’s Unclick section, Klee’s essays, satire, and fiction have appeared in Lapham’s Quarterly, Vanity Fair, 3:AM, Salon, the Awl, the New York Observer, the Millions,  and the Village Voice. He's the author of two odd books of fiction, 'Ivyland' and 'True False.'

Miles Klee