When I first saw the Miracle Mattress 9/11 sale ad, my initial thought was that it couldn’t be real. There was just no way anybody could have been that tone-deaf to write and film an ad that made a mockery of the most deadly terrorist attack in American history. Alas, when I realized that the ad was indeed real, I figured the company would be gone from this Earth sooner rather than later.
But I never would have expected the San Antonio mattress store to go under before the anniversary of 9/11. But that is indeed what happened.
The woman who appeared in the ad, Cherise Bonnano is the manager of the store and daughter of its owner. Amidst the fallout from the ad, she told a local news station:
“We are not hate, we are love, we are somebody that stands out, we are Miracle Mattress, we make miracles happen. And for our lives to be in danger that is not what we ever wanted… It was stupid, it was a stupid idea that we sent out and we apologize for our stupidity and we really hope that you forgive us for what we have done.”
It is unfathomable how she didn’t foresee the firestorm the ad would cause, and, as a result, Miracle Mattress is no more. As awful as this ad was, the most offensive thing about it is that someone actually thought it was a good way to promote a sale. Good riddance.
