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How Can Government Agencies Express Grief Over Celebrity Deaths?

Lauren Girardin

There are a few inevitable things in life. There’s death and taxes. In our digital age, it also seems inevitable that brands will pump out awkward or, worse, offensive social media posts about the death of a celebrity.

Should your government agency or public service organization even speak up about a celebrity death? If you decide to share, how can you do so tastefully?

A tough decision in an emotionally fraught moment

Some will argue that brands should never comment on the death of a celebrity. That brands cannot mourn. And that social sharing by brands is always going to be self-serving.

Self-promotion through grief is unkind to do to people. It also can damage the relationships, trust, and brand reputation you’ve worked so hard to build at your agency.

Even if self-promotion isn’t present, grief shared by brands can be seen as an attempt to co-opt emotions. When brands intrude into grief, it can force people to recognize that brands are often manipulating our emotions toward their own end, such as profits, power, policy, or another agenda. This is an uncomfortable truth that can reveal the emotional artifice at the core of many brands.

But, some brands will have established trust with people in a way that the brand’s authentic, tasteful expression of grief will be welcomed. Others can offer information that is truly useful. Brands are also run by real people who may feel compelled to share their collective grief.

Before your agency shares messages about a celebrity’s death, think hard about why you want to share. Look at examples of how others have succeeded and failed. Remove anything that might be seen as self-promotion. Scrutinize your content for ways it can be misinterpreted. Then, proceed with caution.

Social media about Prince, done right

Most of the social media shares following Prince’s death were by companies. More often than not, corporate brands fell into the tasteless self-promotion trap.

Though government agencies tended to stay silent, most who spoke up did so with a grace derived from clear civic purpose. Here are examples of government agencies who joined the social media conversation about Prince for the right reasons.

City of Chanhassen, Minnesota

Prince built his Paisley Park home and studio in Chanhassen, Minnesota. It’s also where he died. Inevitably, Chanhassen has become the center of a lot of activity, with thousands of visitors suddenly inundating a city of 23,000 people.

Sensibly, the city decided to use its social media smarts to help people grieve both online and off. The city’s Facebook and Twitter accounts provide visitors and local residents with useful information about road closures, public restrooms, parking, and community memorial services. Chanhassen’s social media has also become a hub for curated relevant news from other local agencies, elected officials, media, and businesses.

Local residents have also been drawn to Chanhassen’s Facebook page where they’re sharing their grief with neighbors and friends. People’s comments are overwhelmingly positive, sharing their appreciation for how the city has handled the situation.

prince-brand-grief-chanhassen-facebook

Prince’s legacy may forever change Chanhassen. The Purple One’s friends and family are talking to city officials about the future of Paisley Park, which could become a museum. Working with a local radio DJ, the city is asking people to share their ideas for a local memorial site using the hashtag, #PrinceMemorial.

NASA

NASA paid tribute to the Purple One by sharing a photo of the Crab Nebula, a supernova some consider as iconic to astronomy as Prince was to music. The 2013 photo gets its purple hue by combining a blue-filtered view of visible wavelengths by the Hubble Space Telescope with a far-infrared image by the Herschel Space Observatory.

This tweet works because it is innocuous and because NASA has a strong brand people trust. It resonated strongly with Prince fans around the world, garnering tens of thousands of retweets and likes, and extensive international media coverage. Interestingly, NASA did not put the same message out on its other social accounts.

San Francisco & Minneapolis

Local governments have long used lights to splash color onto buildings to commemorate special events, holidays, and people. Governments around the world shone purple lights on public structures, and let people gather in public spaces to celebrate Prince’s life and music. They used social media to effectively get the word out to communities.

In response to public requests on social media, San Francisco, California was one of many cities that decided to honor Prince, announcing its decision on the official SF City Hall Twitter account.

It’s clear from comments on social media that city residents appreciated this decision to give them a central place to gather where they could celebrate the life of a legend.

https://twitter.com/ozrunnergrrrl/status/723327302277337088

Minneapolis, Minnesota used social media to announce it was honoring Prince by playing some of his songs on the Minneapolis City Hall tower bells.

Social media lit up as people praised Minneapolis for this unique tribute. The city and people used social media video and livestreaming to broadcast the shared experience.

StopBullying.gov

StopBullying.gov shared a quote by Prince that fit with the agency’s mission, without being too self-promotional. Both the visual and the written messages were appropriate for the agency’s audience of parents, kids, educators, and communities who are working to prevent bullying. It could have been completely free of self-promotion if they’d left the agency logo off the image.

The Smithsonian

The Smithsonian is a repository for many of the nation’s culture and arts artifacts—including several of Prince’s iconic objects. Two of the Smithsonian’s museums have decided to bring some of Prince’s items out of storage and put them on public display. The museums took to social media to share the news.

The Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery added a photo of Prince to its In Memorium wall to give people another place to pay their respects.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BEgWOyxSKHm/

The National Museum of American History has decided to display Prince’s the Yellow Cloud guitar.

The choice feels especially authentic because the museum has been proudly talking about this guitar for years on social media and displayed it as recently as 2014.

18F

Proving sometimes that a little acknowledgement of grief goes a long way, 18F temporarily turned its logo purple on its website (where it’s already reverted to blue) and Twitter account. It was a subtle change and subtly shared.

https://twitter.com/gboone42/status/723257757604831233

https://twitter.com/gboone42/status/723260312678363137

https://twitter.com/jdtress/status/723333295283412993

Did your government agency or public service organization pay tribute to Prince on social media? Share your social share and why you decided to to speak up in the comments.

Lauren Girardin is a marketing and communications consultant, writer, and speaker based in San Francisco. She helps organizations engage their communities and tell their stories. Her website is laurengirardin.com and you can connect with her on Twitter at @girardinl.

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Kim Schoetzow

Great article! Loved to see the support for organizations to be a part of the social dialogue in a respectful and authentic way.

Lauren Girardin

That’s exactly right, Kim. It’s critical to be respectful and authentic in moments like these. I’m glad you enjoyed my article.

Kristin

The BBC has pointed out that we can expect many high profile celebrities to pass away in the next few years. This is a good time to think ahead about how to commemorate public figures in a way that helps convey their cultural and historical significance to new generations.
http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-36108133

An artist’s hometown can always issue a proclamation.
https://youtu.be/IdKqXtidT0c?

As this news story says, “honoring a local legend is a big responsibility.”
https://youtu.be/o5upYLXULNw

For musicians, a classical tribute to their music on a public carillon, in a public park, or by a symphony orchestra is a dignified commemoration.

https://youtu.be/HmZ2QBkzaOE

https://youtu.be/IdKqXtidT0c?list=PL94hr8ur6xv4Q_JqpKORaVsDe-88WCQSn

https://youtu.be/L-W9hRyCiJs

CSIS often includes links to YouTube music videos in its e-mail updates.
http://csis.org/

If you would like to read more about how governments and cultural organizations address these issues, you can search the Library of Congress catalog for books with headings like these:

“Memorialization”
“Collective memory”
“[Name of place or event]” and “Memory”
“[Name of person]” and “Influence”

http://catalog.loc.gov

Lauren Girardin

Kristin, thank you for sharing those additional ideas for how government agencies can honor the passing of a celebrity. More examples mean more inspiration to help people figure out what would work best for their local community or online audiences.