Pajama Brand Dolce D’Amore Saw the Colombia Earthquake That Killed Over 100 People as a Chance to Sell Sleepwear

While rescue teams were still pulling people from rubble across Colombia in the hours following the 7.4 magnitude earthquake that struck on August 10th, a sleepwear brand called Dolce D’Amore decided it was the right moment to run a marketing campaign. The brand published content with a humorous tone suggesting that the earthquake was an opportunity to reflect on the quality of the pajamas people might be wearing if they had to evacuate in the middle of the night. The post asked followers to consider whether they would want to be seen outside in their current sleepwear during an emergency, then pivoted directly to promoting the brand’s products.

Over 100 people were dead, families across Pereira, Cali, Manizales and Quibdó had been displaced from their homes, buildings had collapsed and emergency workers were still active in the field when Dolce D’Amore decided the moment called for a marketing campaign. The response from Colombian social media users was immediate and unforgiving. The words most frequently used to describe the campaign were insensitive, opportunistic and in poor taste, and the criticism spread across Instagram and TikTok with the speed that only genuine collective outrage produces. The brand has since faced calls for a boycott, and those calls are entirely warranted. Dolce D’Amore’s decision to use an active national disaster as a backdrop for selling sleepwear reflects a fundamental failure of basic human judgment, and the Colombian community has every right to respond accordingly.

What Newsjacking Is and Why This Crossed Every Line

There is a legitimate marketing practice called newsjacking, which involves brands creating content that responds to current events in real time in order to stay culturally relevant. Airlines like Ryanair do it well. Duolingo built an entire brand identity around it. The practice works when it is clever, when it is harmless and when the news event in question does not involve human suffering, death or displacement. The golden rule of newsjacking is that it stops the moment there are victims. When people are dead, when families are searching for missing relatives and when rescue workers are still active in the field, the correct choices available to a brand are silence or genuine action, and content about products is never one of them.

Dolce D’Amore’s post violated that rule completely and did so in a way that suggested the people who approved it either did not understand the rule or did not consider Colombian suffering serious enough to pause a campaign over. Neither explanation is a defense, and both are damning in their own way.

What Brands Should Actually Do During a National Tragedy

The brands that build credibility during moments of crisis are the ones that show up with real action rather than content. Sharing verified collection points, donating directly to relief organizations, amplifying official emergency information and making their platforms available to help coordinate relief efforts on the ground are all legitimate choices that require no creativity, no campaign budget and no copywriter. Brands with Colombian audiences can use their reach to direct followers toward donation links, share information about where to drop off supplies, amplify the voices of organizations already working in the field and make space for the community to grieve and mobilize without turning any of it into branded content. The difference between helping and opportunism comes down to one honest question: is this post serving the people affected or is it serving the brand. When the answer is the latter, the correct move is silence.

The Colombian Red Cross activated the campaign #TodosPorColombia and established collection points across the country, including a 24-hour center at Cr 24 #73-38 in Bogotá, six collection points across the city including the Palacio de los Deportes and Unicentro, the Plazoleta Jairo Varela in Cali and a 24-hour location at Carrera 43 #6-120 in Barranquilla. These are the actions that build trust between a brand and a community, and they require no creativity, no campaign budget and no copywriter, only the basic decision to prioritize people over product.

Why the Boycott Is Justified

The community asking for a boycott of Dolce D’Amore is not overreacting. A boycott is one of the few tools consumers have to communicate directly to a brand that a line was crossed, and this line was crossed with such clarity that the response feels proportionate rather than excessive. The argument that it was a poorly timed post misunderstands what happened, because the post was not poorly timed in the way that a birthday message sent on the wrong day is poorly timed. It reveals what a brand actually thinks about the people it sells to when it believes engagement is available and decency is optional.

The internet never forgets, and the Colombian community in particular has a long memory for who showed up when it mattered and who tried to profit from the moment instead. Dolce D’Amore made a choice in a moment that demanded decency, and the choice it made will be part of how people remember the brand long after the news cycle moves on. Fuerza Colombia.