Prince's death highlights fine line between sympathy and advertising - CNET

This isn't, of course, the first time companies have used a celebrity death as a high-profile advertising opportunity. When rock icon David Bowie died in January, for example, Crocs shoes used the death as a way to show off its footwear, and ended up deleting a tweet after an onslaught of criticism. But companies like Fender guitars, Bose and Diesel clothing -- just to name a few -- quoted Bowie's most heartfelt lyrics instead of shilling out images of their products to cash in on the singer's hashtag traffic on Twitter.

If there's anything to be leaed from this it's that companies can express their sadness for the passing of an icon without using their products to do it. Capitalizing on tragedy on social media should never be a company's end game. You wouldn't pass flyers for your company out at a funeral, so why do the equivalent on social media?

Businesses ea customer loyalty when we think they're being genuine with their actions. Classy tweets go a long way when honoring the life of someone like Prince or David Bowie. Respect the person, and fans will respect your company.