Advertising during national upheavals: what, when and how?

• Position: Marketing News

First, there was Sept. 11, 2001. Eighteen F months later, there was the war on Iraq, which started this year on March 19. Both raised the same difficult questions for marketers: Should advertising campaigns be pulled or postponed because they might project the wrong tone or imagery during times of national trauma?

Among the national financial services advertisers that suspended ad campaigns for at [east a few days after the start of the Iraq war were MasterCard, the American Express Co., and Charles Schwab, according to news reports. On the other hand, a number of advertisers with light-hearted or humorous ads said they stuck by their original broadcast schedules, despite the war's intrusion.

Some banks took a pragmatic approach and developed new ads offering special...