Colonial Williamsburg ad evokes 9/11: tasteful tribute or blatant exploitation?

A commercial for the living-history museum Colonial Williamsburg has drawn both criticism and praise for using images of the 9/11 attacks.

|
Steve Helber/AP Photo/File
Historical interpreter Edwin Cooke III, of Williamsburg,left, gets a sewing lesson from Lynda Giselle, of Newport News, Va., at the Randolph house in the restored area of Colonial Williamsburg in Williamsburg, Va., on Dec. 15, 2015. A Super Bowl ad promoting tourism at Colonial Williamsburg has drawn mixed responses for using imagery of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center.

A Super Bowl ad touting tourism in Colonial Williamsburg has drawn both praise and ire for using imagery of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center.

The commercial, which aired in New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C., after halftime Sunday night and was a first for the living-history museum, has narrator Tom Brokaw calling on viewers to “reflect upon our sacrifices, our breakthroughs, and yes, our heartbreaks” – at which point footage of one of the twin towers crumbling down is shown in reverse.

The resulting social media outcry again calls to question the line between tasteful tribute to and commercial exploitation of a tragedy. The events of 9/11 in particular – because of both their gravity and recency – have been the center of debate about when commemoration crosses the line into profiteering.

Almost immediately, a slew viewers took to Twitter to express concerns about the ad:

A similar furor took place when the National September 11 Memorial & Museum – built on the site where the twin towers once stood – opened to the public in May 2014. The presence of an on-site gift shop, as well as plans for a restaurant overlooking the artifacts from 9/11, prompted a loud outcry from family members and critics alike, as The Christian Science Monitor’s Harry Bruinius reported at the time.

“It's not right, selling dog raincoats to commercialize the deaths of 3,000 people,” wrote David Cutler, a guest columnist for a consortium of Cleveland news organizations. “When you're on sacred ground, where victims jumped to their deaths from the burning towers, the idea of someone buying a black and white 'Darkness Hoodie' for $39, at that very spot, seems vile.”

Museum representatives at the time defended the decision to sell souvenirs at the site, with then-spokesman Michael Frazier pointing out in a statement that “many of our guests from the 9/11 community have visited the shop and purchased a keepsake from their historic experience.”

Colonial Williamsburg has done the same, emphasizing the importance of remembering the best and worst of the past in growing as a nation.

“Our ad is meant to walk viewers backwards through time, challenging them to reflect on how our collective history and struggles shape who we are as Americans today,” Colonial Williamsburg posted in a statement. “We cannot forget our sacrifices or our tragedies even as we celebrate our accomplishments. Colonial Williamsburg does not shy away from these difficult moments in our history because they have made us who we are just as surely as our many triumphs.”

And some agreed with the message that Colonial Williamsburg says it was trying to make.

“Wonderful commercial Colonial Williamsburg!” one commenter wrote on the museum’s Facebook page. “Guess what folks – people have died in most of the events that were shown there. That's the point – it's about our nation's history, the good and bad we have gone through, and where it all started!!”

“Thank you, CW, for this thought-provoking, respectful method of bringing many highlights of this great country's history to a wide audience,” another added.

There may be at least one other point of view, as well. In a post on his blog, Andy Schocket, a professor of history at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, questions Colonial Williamsburg’s use of 9/11 footage instead of other heartbreaking or difficult moments in America’s past – such as the Oklahoma City bombing or the use of hoses on black protesters on the bridge in Selma, Ala.

Part of it has to do with the fact that, even if only shown for a fraction of a second, the 9/11 shot is pretty memorable.... I’ll tell you my theory, though, beyond recognizability of a particular moment: CW chose 9/11 because it was heartbreak caused by foreigners, rather than inflicted by Americans, on Americans.

In other words, despite its claim to be “challenging” Americans, CW is still ... not asking us to face our own failings. Rather, as in this ad, it still portrays American history as a story of uninterrupted progress in which obstacles were overcome by heroism, without noting that, in most cases, those obstacles were made by some of us Americans wanting to exploit our fellow Americans.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Colonial Williamsburg ad evokes 9/11: tasteful tribute or blatant exploitation?
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/2016/0208/Colonial-Williamsburg-ad-evokes-9-11-tasteful-tribute-or-blatant-exploitation
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe