• Forbes, Thursday, September 22, 2011 12:15 PM

Ads in the sky, ads in public restrooms, on peoples' skin, ads viewable form space, ads on the sea floor (one assumes). But should there be ads plastered on tragic events?

Seems not everyone is misty-eyed over seeing Budweiser's horses genuflecting at lower Manhattan. Columnist Adam Swann wonders, with the 10-year anniversary of 9/11, if tragedies are the right place for brand building.

"Advertising as commemoration has polarized people online, most believing it is still about promoting the company more than honoring victims," he writes. "With this viewpoint in mind, as the world becomes more frequently politically and environmentally unstable, will we see more brands marketing around uprisings, riots, earthquakes, hurricanes, floods and even barbarous terrorist attacks?"

Yes. But he gives kudos to companies that provide services -- P&G and Walmart, for instance, after Katrina and the BP spill -- without talking about it too much.

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