Days away from the 23rd anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks , online users discussed a picture of a West Virginia newspaper print advertisement intended to honor the victims of the tragedy.
The print ad — dated Sept. 6, 2024 — displayed a picture of the World Trade Center in New York from Sept. 11, 2001, apparently in the seconds after the second plane struck the south tower. It also showed a dog with a large teardrop falling from its eye and the company name Quality Home Comfort superimposed on top of the fires and destruction. The copy read, "Upgrade Now!," and promoted furnaces, air conditioning, duct work and installation.
Users reposted the ad on Facebook and X . A reverse-image search also led us to numerous Reddit posts where users discussed the ad, including on the subreddits r/WestVirginia , r/idiocracy , r/HVAC , r/TwinTowersInPhotos , r/NormMacdonald , r/AdvertisingFails , r/ABoringDystopia and others . The picture of the ad possibly originated with the r/WestVirginia subreddit. We contacted the user who created that post but did not yet receive a response.
Commenters in these posts made light of various aspects featured in the ad, for example the mention of "furnaces" right below the fires of the burning twin towers and also the dog with the teardrop.
To learn more, we spoke by phone with Damon Bolden, the listed president of Quality Home Comfort. The company is l ocated in the small town of Grafton, West Virginia. He told Snopes that a local newspaper designed the ad, telling us, "I don't even know what it looks like. We have a little local newspaper here in north-central West Virginia."
Both Bolden and a Reddit commenter mentioned the ad appeared in a Clarksburg-based newspaper. The Clarksburg-based Exponent Telegram, via WVNews.com, previously featured ads with the same dog, including one showing the same dog with sweat drops instead of teardrops. Another ad honored 9/11 victims in 2023 with a backdrop of the modern-day New York skyline at night, complete with the "Tribute in Light" display representing the lost twin towers. No dogs appeared in that previous ad.
After we described the September 2024 ad to Bolden, including mentioning the crying dog, he said, "To have a dog on it and to put Quality Home on the buildings or anything like that … we would never do anything like that. That would be so disrespectful. It would be unbelievable."
He continued, saying he received numerous calls from people who viewed the ad online. "I'm getting these calls from Maryland and New York, and one guy wanted to donate. I'm going, 'Sir, we're not asking for donations.' It's just a local ad out of our local little handout newspaper for the 17,000 people that are in Taylor County. That's it." He provided us with contact information for one of his coworkers who told us much the same.
We emailed the staff of WVNews.com to ask if this matter involved their print newspaper but did not yet receive a response. We will update this story if we uncover more details.
Sources:
"Grafton, West Virginia." U.S. Census Bureau , https://data.census.gov/profile/Grafton_city,_West_Virginia?g=160XX00US5432716 .
"QUALITY HOME COMFORT HEATING & COOLING, INC." West Virginia Secretary of State Mac Warner , https://apps.sos.wv.gov/business/corporations/organization.aspx?org=146390 .
"September 11 Attacks | History, Summary, Location, Timeline, Casualties, & Facts." Britannica , https://www.britannica.com/event/September-11-attacks .
"Tribute in Light." National September 11 Memorial & Museum , https://www.911memorial.org/visit/memorial/tribute-light .
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