10 Yetis Insight Blog - How Did Brands and Organisations Successfully React To The Death Of Prince?

Like all of us here at 10 Yetis, you were no doubt shocked and saddened to hear of the untimely death of legendary singer and icon Prince Rogers Nelson on April 21^st.

There was no indication that he was ill, and no reports of any addiction issues, so understandably after the news broke across news outlets and across social media platforms, a huge amount of his fans, as well as music lovers, took to their pages in order to pay their respects to the artist.

For many, Prince and his back catalogue of hugely popular songs defined an era, and no one else on the planet could ever claim to own a colour in the same way in which he made the colour purple his own, could they?

As a result of this, many brands and organisations decided to celebrate the life of Prince after his passing, instead of mourning his all-too-short life. Here are some of our favourite ways that they paid tribute without being too overly-promotional.

Snapchat- Purple Rain Filter

Unsuprisingly, everyone on the team here tries to keep their finger on the pulse of the new social media trends and announcements, and unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last few months, you will undoubtedly have been subject to the snapchat filter craze. A range of funny and clever filters are now downloaded on the up-to-date version of the app, allowing users to swap faces with their friends, add a flower wreath to their hair, widen their eyes and age their faces, to name but a few.

After Prince died, Snapchat decided to pay tribute to Prince and arguably his biggest hit, Purple Rain, by adding a purple rain lens for users to use when sending messages to their acquaintances. Despite the fact that their Bob Marley filter the week before hadn’t gone down well and caused some serious controversy, this simple tribute seems to have sparked interest and respect from Prince fans all around the world.

International Landmarks

One can clearly see just how much the entire world appreciated the music, life and legacy Prince left behind by taking into account just how many famous landmarks around the world paid tribute by turning purple.

Here are just a number of places that did so:

• -Eiffel Tower (Paris)

• -Niagara Falls (Ontario)

• -Empire State Building (New York City)

• -Prince Street Station (Brooklyn, New York)

• -The Lowry Avenue Bridge (Minneapolis)

• -The Mercedes-Benz Superdome (New Orleans)

• -Montreal City Hall (Montreal)

London Tube Dance Tribute

One tribute by blogger Jackson Flowers hasn’t had as much media coverage just yet, but it’s definitely one that the team here at 10 Yetis loved as we shared the video around (clearly as research for this blog, BTW.)

Jackson decided to engage in an impromptu dance and performance for his fellow passengers whilst travelling on the tube in London on April 24^th. He chose the classic Prince tune ‘I Wanna Be Your Lover’ as the background music to his celebration of Prince, and successfully managed to encourage his fellow passengers and fans of the star to dance with him during their journey on the circle line.

For those of you unfamiliar with Londoners and their world-famous inability to smile, engage with or acknowledge strangers on public transport, this is a PRETTY BIG DEAL, and just goes to further prove the effect Prince had on our country!

The Revolution Reunion

Fans of Prince may remember that back in the 1980’s, for such albums as ‘1999’ and ‘Purple Rain’, he was accompanied by band, The Revolution (who, despite serving as his backing band from the start of his career, didn’t receive their name until their appearance in Prince’s 1984 film, Purple Rain). Many fans who never got a chance to see them perform with the singer may be interested to now know that the band are reforming in their own special tribute to their late friend and former band member.

Members of the group, including guitarist Wendy Melvoin, bass player Brown Mark, keyboard players Lisa Coleman and Matt Fink and drummer Bobby Z, all spent the days after Princes death together grieving for their friend, and have made the decision to do some shows.

Whilst no official dates have yet been set, they are all planning to join together for the reunion.

Whilst the above examples are just a few ways in which Prince’s life has been celebrated, there are many other ways in which brands reacted to the death of Prince, and some weren’t great! Don’t believe us? Have a look online for yourselves!

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