Cheerios Posts Prince Tribute, Classic Twitter Overreaction Ensues [TWEETS]

Social media is very much a double-edged sword: it can connect users from all around their world, but it also makes each user's posts vulnerable to scrutiny from others. This is particularly true for companies who partially rely on their exposure on social media to contribute to their revenue, and Cheerios is learning that first hand.

What happened, you ask? As you may recall, 57-year-old Prince died Thursday at his Chanhassen, Minn. home. The superstar, famous for hits like "Kiss" and "Purple Rain," was found unresponsive in an elevator in Paisley Park Studios and pronounced dead at 10:07 a.m. or less than half an hour after paramedics were dispatched to the scene.

News of his passing spread quickly, and many took to social media to share their condolences, including Cheerios, which was just one of many.

Unfortunately for the cereal brand, its post was less than well-received, prompting a slew of angry messages in response.

Yes, you read correctly, "Rest in peace" with a Cheerio in place of the dot over the "i" was enough to offend hundreds of cereal eaters. Why exactly? Apparently, some fans of the pop icon felt that the tweet was an example of shameless branding by the Cherrios and argued that the company was using Prince's death to market its products.

In fact, Cheerios received so many angry tweets about a seemingly innocent tweet that it actually deemed it necessary to delete its initial post, as well as issue a statement about the reasoning behind the post, saying: "As a Minnesota brand, Cheerios wanted to acknowledge the loss of a musical legend in our hometown. But we quickly decided that we didn't want the tweet to be misinterpreted, and removed it out of respect for Prince and those mourning."

This whole incident only serves as another entry in the debate over whether brands should be allowed to tweet about a celebrity's death or specific holidays. Occurrences like this happen every year, and they always illicit the same type of reactions. There are a lot of factors that need to be considered in the discussion, such as intent and "tastefulness" of the tweet, but such factors are highly subjective - as evidenced by this whole event.

However, if random people on Twitter are the ones who will make such decisions, then a certainly level of uniformity needs to be established. Cheerios may have garnered the most attention with its tweet, but it certainly wasn't the only company who made a post to commemorate Prince's life. Other companies took to Twitter to post Prince tributes of their own, but received far less attention.

So, what is the difference between Cheerios and the other brands? Who knows. The argument could be made that Cheerios wanted to increase its exposure, but its Cheerios - how much exposure does a cereal brand need when anyone can find them lined up across the cereal aisle in a local grocery? Not to mention, seeing the tribute most likely didn't make anyone have the sudden urge to whip out a bowl of cereal.

On the contrary, this looks like just another example of the Twitterverse overreacting to something that was far less serious than what it actually was.

Tags

General Mills, Prince, Twitter, Cereal