Is It Too Soon For A Novelty Titanic Tea Infuser?

As we learned when Spaghetti-Os sent a tweet commemorating the anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor with a flag-waving noodle, some people take offense to the commercialization of tragedies that maybe their grandparents might remember. How soon is too soon to commercialize a tragedy? Does that extend to the tragedies of our great-grandparents’ time, too?

Worldwide fascination with the sinking of the Titanic has kept that particular tragedy fresh in everyone’s minds. That makes it particularly ripe for commercialization, but maybe also inappropriate.

That’s what a Consumerist reader named Laura who is not me thinks. She noticed this novelty tea infuser at Meijer, and found it inappropriate enough that she snapped a picture and sent it to us.

How unsinkable is it? Would playing with this infuser only be inappropriate if you smash sugar cubes into it?

“Wonder if Meijer will sell collapsible World Trade Center tea infusers in a hundred years or so?” Laura writes. “Yeesh!” No, it would need to be some other kind of food or beverage that collapses, but we see her point.

This is hardly the first whimsical piece of Titanic memorabilia, though. It might be the first sold at Meijer, but people have been cashing in on the wreck since it had barely reached the ocean floor.

Even modern, irreverent merch is hardly anything new. Titanic soap seems particularly inappropriate, especially when it comes with its own soap icebergs. Yet here it is.

(BerwynBettysBathShop/Etsy)

Yes, Titanic merchandise is an entire industry. Does that mean that it belongs on the kitchen supplies shelf at Meijer?

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist