Cinnabon, you’ll always have the worst tweets in the Twitter galaxy.
Followed by the tragic death of Carrie Fisher, the amazing actress, author and all around unbelievably talented women; the world saw thousands of tributes flood the internet. Tributes ranging from favourite pictures, fan drawings, clips of her from famous movies- such as Star Wars, quotes, etc. Even companies and famous actors took to social media to pay tribute to the late Fisher. But there was one company specifically, that took a large social media fail with a poorly timed tribute message and a lack of planned content, and that company was the infamous cinnmon bun company, Cinnabon.
Cinnabon took to twitter, and tweeted an image of Fisher from the Star Wars movie made out of the companies famous cinnamon buns, including a sticky bun being used to stand in place of the iconic Princess Leia bun-style hair. Cinnabon tweeted along with the image “RIP Carrie Fisher, you’ll always have the best buns in the galaxy”.
The tweet gained a lot of negative response and was seen as “tacky” or as “shamless self promotion” for Cinnabon. Other responses from fans of Fisher, seen on twitter were:
After the outrage from fans throughout social media and news channels, Cinnabon took to Twitter once again in form of an apology, and tweeted:
Although, the company did in fact tweet an apology response, the tribute was still seen as something done with poor taste, and has affected consumers views of Cinnabon.
Within our age of social media, brands and various companies must be very strategic, and walk a very thin line when thinking about paying a tribute regarding a celebritiy death. As for Cinnabon, I believe the companies poorly timed tweet backfired due to the harsh combination of planned and canned content. The image of Fisher as Princess Leia was tweeted once before on May 4th for Star Wars day, in this case the content is seen as canned content as it is generic, quick, copied, not-careful, and disingenuous, as it has been used before, and wasnt a purposeful and meaningful tribute in the case of her passing. The tweet can also be seen as planned content, as it is relevant, crafted, custom, specific and tailored, as Cinnabon decided to post it as a tribute, and as the image was specifically crafted for the Princess Leia character, who Fisher played in Star Wars. Although, the post was relevant, and to pay tribute to Fisher, it was not done with enough thought regarding planned content. Next time, Cinnabon.. if there is a next time, please be more sensitive and dont re use previous posts, especially to pay a tribute to an amazing and talented woman, such as Carrie Fisher.
Now no Star Wars fans want to eat your Cinnabon’s.
