On Sunday, Twitter user and video interviewer Quinton Washington visited the site in Charleston, S.C. where 9 members of Mother Emanuel AME Church were massacred in June.
Washington snapped a photo from a distance showing the 200-year-old church against a cloudy gray sky on a “warm, Sunday in December.”
He uploaded the innocent-looking photo to his Twitter.com account, which was retweeted by 6 of his followers. But, apparently, 6 sets of eyes were too many for the staff at Marriott Courtyard Charleston Historic District hotel.
The Mother Emanuel Way Memorial District on a warm, Sunday afternoon in December. #chsnews #chs pic.twitter.com/sVgRds6RXs
— Quintin Washington (@QuintinOnCamera) December 27, 2015
Someone from MCCHD hotel tweeted Washington asking him not to include the hotel which sits catty corner across from the church.
“@QuintinOnCamera We respectfully ask you not to include the hotel in mother AME photos. TY,” the hapless staffer wrote.
If Marriott thought they were protecting the brand by asking a tourist not to include their hotel in any photos, they were mistaken.
Washington retweeted Marriott’s tweet and now Marriott has a public relations nightmare on their hands.