January 14, 1999, a mentally disturbed woman walked into a gun store in Salt Lake City and legally purchased a gun. There was no waiting period.
She then hopped on a bus, walked into my office building, moments after a bunch of us returned from a late lunch at Spaghetti Factory, and "allegedly" opened fire.
She tried to shoot her way into NBC affiliate KSL-TV. She injured the building manger and then took off in our building. For roughly 30 minutes no one knew where she was. She made her way to the AT&T office on the 4th floor and shot point blank a new mom in the head. She sadly died a week later.
I initially stood at the window and watched what was unfolding below me in horror. Straight from a movie scene. More uniformed and non-uninformed police, cars, vans, dogs I've ever seen. SWAT team in riot gear rushing towards our building.
I ran to my office, hid under my desk and frantically called my boyfriend back in Chicago who initially thought I was joking. All the while staring blankly at the awe-inspiring snow peaked mountains of picturesque Utah out my office window.
So for me - Friday's tragedy hits a little too close to home. I more than likely view it with a different lens than you....
On Friday a Brazilian women's clothing boutique appears to have accidentally capitalized on the tragedy in Colorado by tweeting "#Aurora is trending, clearly about our Kim K inspired #Aurora dress ;)"
The brand (whose name I won't mention) apologized for their misunderstanding of the trending hashtag 90 minutes later. While distasteful, it's an honest mistake.
The same doesn't seem to be true for this graphic designer.
Over the weekend I saw this new logo (!?!?) of the tragedy on a friend's Facebook page posted by a local comic convention and the request we, "Like" this picture to show your support and love for our community."
I have major problems with this.
How could a tragedy such as this warrant... the creation of a logo?
If it were just the ribbon and the heart - maybe. But to take the extra steps to include the outline of the caped man just crosses the line for me. Especially since (key point here) the person who created this doesn't include any information on how to donate to these victims or the community on his Facebook page. He does however make certain his new logo and the Timeline image he created (again ?!?!) are open to public view, and more importantly to share.
As of this posting the Timeline image he created was shared 171 times while the logo was shared 2,734 times.
As for the branded Facebook page I found this on, I find it incredibly disrespectful to ask people to "like" this post. The end result creates tremendous brand awareness for their Facebook page. As such, this logo was shared from their Facebook status update 6,351 times.
While they have provided a ton of wonderful information on how to help, donate, the memorial service, etc - sadly this one post of the logo generated far more interest than actually helping the people of this tragedy as compared with their other posts.
What does this say about us?
These are people, and even a six year old little girl, who died way too soon.
So in memory of these victims - please visit USA Today here to read more about who these beautiful people were. One had a birthday. Others served our country or were mothers. All who are no longer here.
Should you wish to donate - please visit Giving First who has a list of local non-profits who are helping these victims.
And while one might say just me writing this post is capitalizing on the tragedy - I've been certain to do everything you're not supposed to do in a blog post. Limited key words, names, no alt image tags added, won't be submitting this URL to Google, etc.
Again, please consider donating to Giving First to help those who really need it. But more importantly, these victims should be remembered and not a logo and Facebook Timeline image of what happened.
She then hopped on a bus, walked into my office building, moments after a bunch of us returned from a late lunch at Spaghetti Factory, and "allegedly" opened fire.
She tried to shoot her way into NBC affiliate KSL-TV. She injured the building manger and then took off in our building. For roughly 30 minutes no one knew where she was. She made her way to the AT&T office on the 4th floor and shot point blank a new mom in the head. She sadly died a week later.
I initially stood at the window and watched what was unfolding below me in horror. Straight from a movie scene. More uniformed and non-uninformed police, cars, vans, dogs I've ever seen. SWAT team in riot gear rushing towards our building.
I ran to my office, hid under my desk and frantically called my boyfriend back in Chicago who initially thought I was joking. All the while staring blankly at the awe-inspiring snow peaked mountains of picturesque Utah out my office window.
So for me - Friday's tragedy hits a little too close to home. I more than likely view it with a different lens than you....
On Friday a Brazilian women's clothing boutique appears to have accidentally capitalized on the tragedy in Colorado by tweeting "#Aurora is trending, clearly about our Kim K inspired #Aurora dress ;)"
The brand (whose name I won't mention) apologized for their misunderstanding of the trending hashtag 90 minutes later. While distasteful, it's an honest mistake.
The same doesn't seem to be true for this graphic designer.
Over the weekend I saw this new logo (!?!?) of the tragedy on a friend's Facebook page posted by a local comic convention and the request we, "Like" this picture to show your support and love for our community."
I have major problems with this.
How could a tragedy such as this warrant... the creation of a logo?
If it were just the ribbon and the heart - maybe. But to take the extra steps to include the outline of the caped man just crosses the line for me. Especially since (key point here) the person who created this doesn't include any information on how to donate to these victims or the community on his Facebook page. He does however make certain his new logo and the Timeline image he created (again ?!?!) are open to public view, and more importantly to share.
As of this posting the Timeline image he created was shared 171 times while the logo was shared 2,734 times.
As for the branded Facebook page I found this on, I find it incredibly disrespectful to ask people to "like" this post. The end result creates tremendous brand awareness for their Facebook page. As such, this logo was shared from their Facebook status update 6,351 times.
While they have provided a ton of wonderful information on how to help, donate, the memorial service, etc - sadly this one post of the logo generated far more interest than actually helping the people of this tragedy as compared with their other posts.
What does this say about us?
These are people, and even a six year old little girl, who died way too soon.
So in memory of these victims - please visit USA Today here to read more about who these beautiful people were. One had a birthday. Others served our country or were mothers. All who are no longer here.
Should you wish to donate - please visit Giving First who has a list of local non-profits who are helping these victims.
And while one might say just me writing this post is capitalizing on the tragedy - I've been certain to do everything you're not supposed to do in a blog post. Limited key words, names, no alt image tags added, won't be submitting this URL to Google, etc.
Again, please consider donating to Giving First to help those who really need it. But more importantly, these victims should be remembered and not a logo and Facebook Timeline image of what happened.
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