As the 10th anniversary nears, however, marketers, media companies and advertising agencies are changing course, involving themselves with sponsorships, screenings, fund-raisers, programming and other highly visible activities.
Those taking part include blue-chip names like American Express, ATT, Best Buy, CBS, Chrysler, Clear Channel, Condé Nast, Discovery Communications, General Motors, Google, Home Depot, National Geographic, Time Warner, Verizon and The New York Times, which is publishing a commemorative section.
They say they are being particularly careful to be conscious of the meaning of Sept. 11, 2001, and avoid anything that could be deemed tasteless or crass.
But experts wonder whether the public will be able to draw a firm line between a television special and a 9/11 memorial wine; between commemorative publications and replicas of the Twin Towers that light up in red, white and blue; between advertisements asking for donations and ads for a health club offering first responders discount rates that expire on Sept. 11.
“We’ve been saying to people, there’s probably no right way to do this,” said J. Walker Smith, executive chairman at the Futures Company consultancy, which is to release this month a report on public attitudes toward 9/11.
“If I were a marketer, I would let the moment pass,” Mr. Smith said. “Anything you do could be seen as self-serving or disrespectful.”
Marian Salzman, an author and trend-watcher who is the chief executive at Euro RSCG Worldwide public relations, described herself as “extremely conflicted” on the subject.
“On one level, you want to convey a sense of empathy and sympathy and patriotism,” Ms. Salzman said. “On another level, there’s a belief that every milestone in American history has been turned into a marketing opportunity.”
“My advice would be to go dark,” she added. “There’s no place for brands to live.”
Still, some are trying. For instance, Lieb Family Cellars, a Long Island winery, is selling 9/11 Memorial commemorative merlot and chardonnay, promising to donate up to 10 percent of the proceeds to the National September 11 Memorial and Museum.
And the New York Sports Club chain of health clubs made the discount offer last month in ads aimed at firefighters, police officers, members of the military and emergency medical workers. The regular rate, $99 a month, was reduced to $20.
Other marketing, media and agency executives acknowledge a need to tread lightly in their plans for Sept. 11, 2011.
“This is a subject none of us wants to think of as commercial,” said Pamela Maffei McCarthy, deputy editor of The New Yorker, part of Condé Nast, which is publishing an e-book, “After 9/11,” collecting the magazine’s coverage of the terrorist attacks and their aftermath.
The e-book is being aimed at “people in their 20s who may have missed” the coverage, Ms. McCarthy said, and anyone older who “might want to revisit” what was “a tremendously important historical event.”
“For something like this, it seemed a very good approach,” she said of the e-book, which costs $7.99.
Several agency, media and marketing executives are members of the advisory board of Action America, an organization that encourages the public to make each Sept. 11 a national day of service.
“We’re hoping to rise above the skepticism consumers have with brands that are associating themselves with 9/11,” said one board member, Lori Senecal, the chief executive of the Kirshenbaum Bond Senecal Partners agency, part of MDC Partners.
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