Social Media Case: Miracle Mattress Twin Towers Commercial

Studying public relations as my major has caused me to look at these situations from a PR perspective. This case is especially interesting to look at because of the tactics, or rather the lack of tactics, used to combat this major public relations crisis. Because Miracle Mattress is a one-location family owned company, it is easily assumed that there was little to no plan for a crisis situation like this one. The company was ripped apart on social media destroying the small reputation it might have held prior. 

The ad was posted to the Miracle Mattress Facebook page by the star of the commercial, Charisse Bonanno, just a few days before the anniversary of 9/11. Charisse is the owner of Miracle Mattress’ daughter. Quickly after it’s initial post, it went viral. The American population was disgusted by the ad’s tasteless offensive nature.

The first statement from Mike Bonanno, owner of Miracle Mattress, came out on September 8 via Facebook. 7 short paragraphs in length, the statement offered a slight apology to those offended by the ad but the majority of the statement pleaded his ignorance in the matter. One part of the statement read, “the video was posted on Facebook without my knowledge or approval from our corporate office in Huston.” I found this to be a very bad move on his part. People don’t care that the CEO had no knowledge of this commercial. They are looking for a major apology and a way to make up for the hurt they have caused.

The second statement came out just a day later announcing the closing of Miracle Mattress. The first line read, “effective immediately, our Miracle Mattress store will be closed indefinitely.” The language used in this next statement would prove to cause even more of a backlash for the company once a later announcement was made of their plans to reopen.

The first two efforts to calm the outraged public over the distasteful commercial Miracle Mattress produced proved ineffective. I would almost argue that the efforts made to relieve the angry public only hurt the company further. However, in the last statement seemed to hit at least a few of the angry commenters. In the comments below the statement, people began taking sides. Tom Lewis commented on the September 16 statement and said, “you made a mistake, you owned up to it, you shut down over a holiday weekend, you’re donating to a good cause, you apologized to the local and greater community, and you’re training your staff. A truly appropriate response. Well done.” This is exactly what you hope to hear from an outraged public as a company that made a mistake.

The last aspect of this social media case I want to touch on is the tactful use of a Miracle Mattress supporter who lost her husband in the 9/11 attack. Lisa Patterson spoke to the press about the people responsible saying, “I know that you’re (Mike) a good man at heard, and that Charissse is a good person.” Using this widows statement is the smartest thing you can do in this situation. Using and reusing this statement will spark other to forgive and recognize the magnitude of the mistake, but the equal sincere apology for the mistake.

Overall I think Miracle Mattress could have done a better job from the beginning confronting the issue. It would have been wise for them to bring in a communications specialist to deal with an issue of this magnitude, which I do not believe they did. If they could have attacked the issue the way they did a couple weeks later in the first public statements, I think they would have avoided a lot of the backlash from people commenting on social media. You can read more about the efforts to combat this issue on the Miracle Mattress Facebook page here.