9/11 Memorial Merchandising: Where Should We Draw The Line?

Last night, both The Daily Show and The Colbert Report did bits on recent 9/11-related merchandise.

Up first, The Daily Show remembered September 13, “the day Americans forgot the lessons of the day they had sworn they would always remember.” The report begins with footage from September 13, 2001, of Southern Baptist preacher Jerry Falwell blaming “pagans, abortionists, feminists, gays, and lesbians” for inciting the terrorist attacks. We also hear from one of the newest Daily Show correspondents who reminisces about that year Americans “yelled at each other over the location of a mosque.” Then, clips roll from the QVC channel: images of commemorative coins and pendants. Finally, Daily Show correspondent Samantha Bee holds up a bottle of 9/11 Memorial Merlot, assuring viewers that, sure, they can drink this wine… [pause for comedic beat]…”if they’re a f**king a**hole.”

Stephen Colbert presented a much longer piece on 9/11 merchandise called “Shopping Griefportunities.” While showing the audience various products — 9/11 shoes, dog collars, wine, chess sets, menu items (I kid you not, 9/11 sushi) — he claimed, “if Americans can exploit the anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks to make a quick buck, it’s like hitting the terrorists with economic Jujitsu.”

Let all of that sink in a minute, and then try this on for size: according to Time‘s “What Did You Buy for the 9/11 Anniversary?” a 9/11 Memorial and Meditation yoga class was instructed to raise their arms “like towers” and then drop them “like death.” WTF?!

The article also goes into more detail on the aforementioned 9/11 Memorial merlot and chardonnay, each priced at — how convenient — $19.11 a bottle. Perhaps it will sit better with you that at least 10% of the wine proceeds go to the National September 11 Memorial and Museum? Eh, probably not when you compare that with something like Newman’s Own products, which donate 100% of after-tax proceeds to various charities around the country and abroad. Also, as marketing professor Sam Craig points out in that same Time column, “Wine usually is used for festive occasions, and this is a very somber occasion.”

Other bloggers and reporters have devoted a post or two to questioning, bashing, and trying to come to grips with this bizarre/tasteless merchandising:

• The Sundance Channel’s “A Shopper’s Guide to Crappy 9/11 Products” features pictures of BBQ aprons, commemorative basket sets, cloth napkins, and iPhone speakers
• The Huffington Post’s slideshow includes a commemorative snow globe, cribbage board, a “Never Forget Knife,” and the pièce de résistance: a 9/11 cigarette lighter with a laser light coming out of a gaping hole in one of the Twin Towers, the other plane approaching next to the face of Bin Laden — all set to a high-pitched version of Beethoven’s “Fur Elise.”
• Moreover, likening the 9/11 mugs, ashtrays, T-shirts, and figurines to things in the giftshop of Graceland, Salon‘s Heather Havrilesky writes about “the selling of 9/11,” maintaining that Americans “buy schlock because we want to remember. But the more we stock up on canned memorabilia, the faster we’ll forget.”
• Finally, one blogger has compiled a list (with pictures) called “9/11 Merchandise: Operation Enduring Profit” that includes WTC note cards, a Beanie Baby Courage 9/11 German Shepherd, plates, coins, and neckties.

Yes, the majority of these items are utterly tasteless and, in some instances, stomach-turning. After all, it’s people trying to make a buck off of a horrific national tragedy that killed thousands of citizens and has left this country shaken and, a decade later, still fearful. But how about the other ways people are commemorating (capitalizing on?) September 11, 2001? What do you make of

• State Farm’s Spike Lee-directed celebratory commercial set to “New York State of Mind,”
• NASCAR’s “I Will. Will You?” TV spot,
• Smith & Wesson’s commemorative motorcycle ride (the sponsors gave away guns — GUNS to remember 9/11?!),
• the NY Fire Department’s upcoming commemorative 9/11 book, and
• that Budweiser Clydesdale advertisement that only aired once (the company wanted to acknowledge the event but not profit financially)?

Are these okay? Where does one draw the line?

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