Flocks of hungry brands descend on Twitter to get in on Queen Elizabeth II’s death
From Lockheed Martin and Raytheon to Domino's, Legoland, and Crazy Frog, the brands are in mourning
Aux Features Twitter
Queen Elizabeth II died yesterday. As the first British monarch to shrug off this mortal coil (and, presumably, the many precious jewels she was wearing at the time) during the internet age, we’ve been able to witness reactions to her death in real-time. This has given us celebrities expressing their grief, from John Lydon tweeting an unironic send-off to Paris Hilton dubbing Elizabeth II “the original girl boss.”
It has also, of course, inspired the brands to get in on the action with their own posts.
Each selection we’ve curated here is noteworthy in its own right, but none can be outshined by Lockheed Martin and Raytheon, which tweeted their “condolences and sympathies” for the death of a solid rival for their titles as historic symbols of global desolation and widespread human misery.
No slouches themselves, a few of the United Kingdom’s favorite food franchises dried their eyes and sat down at the keyboard to pen their farewells, too. Gregg’s took a break from posting about sausage rolls to tweet out its sadness, Domino’s Pizza UK is apparently in “mourning,” Heinz’s UK Twitter account is, it writes, “deeply saddened” by the news, and the official British Kebab Awards needs a bit of time to collect itself. Pizza Express, every (alleged) royal pedophile’s preferred pizza chain, also wants everyone to know it’s pretty broken up about things, too.
British sex shop chain Ann Summers wished for Elizabeth II to “sleep well” (which, combined with its lingerie offerings, certainly conjures up some unfortunate imagery), Playmobil shared a somber photo of a plastic old lady figure, and Legoland locations in England and the United States have posted messages, with the former closing today “out of respect.” London’s Shrek’s Adventure! attraction has also shared its condolences and promises that we, flesh and blood people, and the green CGI ogre Shrek are “united in our loss.”
British dollar store equivalent Poundland is currently in mourning and Cash Converters UK, which describes itself as “the UK’s leading retailer of second-hand goods and pawnbroking” tweeted, too, the latter’s post consisting of either sincere grief or a desire to cozy up to the Royal Family in order to get a few of the world’s finest, questionably obtained “second-hand-goods” traded into its stores.
Elsewhere, the official accounts for the musicals Hamilton and Les Misérables expressed their support for the institution of monarchy. (The Les Mis tweet has since been deleted, but is screencapped by @musicallaneous below.)
And lastly, though we highlighted it previously, we cannot overlook Crazy Frog’s expression of grief and share our own hope that the cartoon character can treat us to a rendition of “God Save The Queen” with some of its horrible amphibian noises all over it.
Seeing all of these reactions and feeling all of the grief running through brand Twitter today, we just hope that Little Debbie and Sunny Delight are holding up okay.
Send Great Job, Internet tips to [email protected]
33 Comments
I’m mostly shocked that I woke up this morning and had to be reminded of Elizabeth’s passing. I had expected it to be an historic moment of such import that I’d feel… something. But then I was just relieved when Trump was kicked out too. I didn’t GAF what he did after he slunk back to Florida.
The entire homepage of Apple.com is a huge picture of the Queen right now. Not exactly the brand I’d expect to be going all in on tributes. Nice picture tho!
Playmobil is still around? I liked them when I was a lad.
They actually stopped making Playmobil when you aged out.
of course!
Yep, they actually have made some pretty cool licensed sets these last few years. My youngest loves the Scooby Doo offering. They also have a Star Trek Enterprise set that looks awesome but is way to much money for me to justify. The website for it is hilarious because I have never seen a toy brand just up and admit this thing is for adults and not children. All the pics and videos show young 20 somethings marveling at ithttps://www.playmobil.us/star-trek—-u.s.s.-enterprise-ncc-1701/70548.htmlAlso there was a terrible movie that came out a few years back.
Movie? That went completely by me.
It went by everyone and it looked terrible. It was trying to be the Lego movie without understanding why The Lego movie was any good
Some cast though.
Definitely a case of trying to chase that sweet Lego Movie cash
Playmobil is still big in Europe (compared to USA) , see it in many shops there. Before the pandemic I visited Malta and they had exclusive Knights of Malta Playmobil figures. (that was my souvenir from there)
“The Knights of Malta, rather than send a live bird to their Emperor as tribute came across the idea to instead create plastic action figures with accessories to amaze the Imperial court.”
I mean I can understand UK brands sending tweets of condolences, but kinda weird that the frog that once had a little dick got involved.It’s honestly less weird to see UK brands tweeting about it than it is for me to see like, my friends from the US (like me) posting about it on Facebook. It’s not even a celebrity that you maybe had some kind of one-sided parasocial relationship with, it’s … the Queen. I can’t imagine anyone on my Facebook feed posting about the Queen had literally thought about her for more than two seconds in the last 30 years.That Johnny Rotten tweet though…really lame.
I love the idea of Freddie Mercury trolling Sid Vicious.
What, exactly, was the right play here? Not saying anything, and being mocked for ignoring the outside world?
A corporation saying nothing is, according to Jon Oliver, always the right play.
you think if raytheon and pizza express didn’t tweet something they’d be mocked for ignoring the outside world?
Plenty of brands said nothing and none of them are being mocked because everyone is busy making fun of the brands who did say something.The thing is, no one in the history of the world has ever thought to themselves, “I wonder what the Froot Loops people have to say about the latest global tragedy?”
Who the fuck would even think to mock Playmobil for not commenting on the death of ~Her Majesty The Queen~?
Yeah dude I’m sure the world was on the edge of their seats waiting for the official word from [BRAND] about the queen’s death
Who’s the more crass: the crass exploiters of the passing of a public figure, or the crass exploiters of the crass exploiters of the passing of a public figure?
“Talking about other people doing bad things is a bad thing.” -You a smart person
How could you leave out Funko?
The black and white coloring postulates a nightmare reality where we’ve had Funco Pops longer than we’ve had color photography.
The A.V. Club is only reporting on this nonsense for the clicks so they’re just as bad as the subjects they’re mocking. If not worse, because at least none of the companies mentioned above demanded their staff move to another city or lose their jobs.
If not worse, because at least none of the companies mentioned above demanded their staff move to another city or lose their jobs.It seems pretty likely that at least one of the companies tweeting their condolences has done something equivalently evil. And by “pretty likely” I mean “I would bet everything I own against a nickel.”
I almost put that as a caveat, and I’m sure you’re right, but I have no personal affection for those brands mentioned above (well, maybe Poundland) whereas I used to love this site, and it’s community, an enormous amount.
Well, that I definitely can’t argue with.
Not saying anything, and being mocked for ignoring the outside world?It’s absolutely outrageous that the GHOULS at Del Taco haven’t commented on the Queen’s passing yet. The Crunchtada Tostada can go F*CK itself.
If you want to know how weird British people are, just check out some of the shit on LinkedIn.They have a weird Oedipal thing going on with her.
Man… I wish Diana the Musical had lived long enough to tweet RIP Liz.