A San Antonio, Texas mattress store will be closed "indefinitely" after a commercial it posted on social media promoting a "Twin Tower sale" days before the 15th anniversary of 9/11 ignited a firestorm of criticism. "We will be silent through the 9/11 Anniversary to avoid any further distractions from a day of recognition and remembrance for the victims and their families," the owner of Miracle Mattress, Mike Bonanno, said in a statement posted on the store's Facebook page on Friday. Employees of the store had also received several death threats after the 20-second spot was released. The offending ad for Miracle Mattress starts with San Antonio branch store manager Cherise Bonanno -- Mike Bonanno's daughter -- asking "What better way to remember 9/11 than with a Twin Tower sale?” and ends with two employees falling backwards onto two piles of mattresses with an American flag in between them. Cherise Bonanno gasps in horror as her coworkers and the mattresses topple over.
She then turns to the camera and says: "We'll never forget." Cherise Bonanno told San Antonio's NBC affiliate the ad was a mistake. "We are not hate, we are love. We are somebody that stands out. We're Miracle Mattress, we make miracles happen. For our lives to be in danger, that's no what we ever wanted," she said. Mike Bonanno claimed the video was made without his knowledge. He told the San Antonio station WOAI that they would donate 30 percent of its sales over weekend to the 9/11 Foundation before deciding to indefinitely shutter the store. "Our intentions were not to hurt anyone at all,” he said in a statement. "Our staff is full of military and some relatives have passed away due to 9/11. We are promoters of peace and love. We have given abundantly to our community here in San Antonio and wish to remain known as a company who respects and loves others. We hope you find it in your hearts to forgive us. Please accept our apology." However, their apology was not well-received.
I hope you go out of business. How any one could think this was funny is beyond me. There is no excuse for this! We will never forget that horrible day! The pain of that day and the loss of loved ones will always be with us . How sick !!!" one Facebook user wrote on the store's page. "Too bad you can't apologize to the men and woman that died on 9/11," wrote another. "When you say you are sorry that we offended you... You aren't actually apologizing for the act. You're apologizing because we somehow took it the wrong way," another added. "There is no other way to take this than as exploitive (sic), as disgusting, as profiteering on a national tragedy. A tragedy, may I remind you, that not only affected Americans but the entire world. A tragedy that changed our way of viewing the world permanently."Mattress shopping made easy. Find the perfect bed—shop online or try in a store. Free shipping and returns on all online orders. Our best selling product, available online and in our showrooms.
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Visit one of our retail showrooms to talk to a human, have a coffee, and touch, bounce, and lay on our beds and bedding products. See if we’re in your neighborhood: A simple guide to shopping for and buying a mattress. Our Most Popular ProductsEarlier this week, Miracle Mattress in San Antonio put an ad on the Internet to celebrate a September 11-themed sale: “What better way to remember 9/11 than with a Twin Towers sale?” a woman asked, while two men helped explain how the deal worked: you can buy a full-size, queen, or king bed all for the price of a twin. Then, to make sure that the point was driven home, she threw her arms back, ostensibly knocking her colleagues over and sending them crashing into two towers of stacked mattresses, which toppled. Finally, she turned to the camera with a smile to say, “We’ll never forget.” It didn’t take long for Miracle Mattress to receive blowback on the Internet. The ad is a bizarre display of irreverence for the 3,000 people who died on September 11, 2001, as well as the 7,000 more who were killed in the wars that followed the attack.
Miracle Mattress quickly apologized, explaining that their “intentions were not to hurt anyone at all,” and that “Our staff is full of military and some relatives have passed away due to 9/11. Please accept our apology.” The store’s owner issued a further apology, condemning the employees responsible for the video. The consequences for those employees haven’t been revealed, but one can assume that they’ll be serious. That’s fair, given the damage they’ve done to the brand of Miracle Mattress. But the solemn way we remember 9/11 is something that is likely to change in coming years, if only because the people who create the ads and other media that we consume are going to have a very different relationship to the events of that day. Right now, an intern at an ad agency might have been five-years-old on September 11, 2001. In a few years, we’ll see things created by people who weren’t alive at all on that day. For them, the events of 9/11 will only fall under the category of history, never having been a current event.