This Horribly Insensitive Marketing Campaign Is Everything Marketing Shouldn’t Be

By Catherine Clifford | Sep 23, 2014

Opinions expressed by Âé¶¹Éç contributors are their own.

Cutthroat is one thing. Disgraceful is another.

Last week, after a man was found dead in the parking lot of , the airport parking reservation and deals website used the death as an opportunity for convincing customers to use its service.

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The company sent out an email to its customers with a coupon for $5 off and the warning “Don’t be late and end up in a crate. Save stress and possibly anything worse by utilizing technology and reserving all your travel needs in advance,” . The subject line was “Can On-Airport Parking Kill?”

. As they should be. There’s a line, and professionals should know better. Nah, humans should know better.

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After being called out for sending the promotional email, AirportParkingReservations.com was apologetic both on Twitter and — but it’s appalling that they would think to cross the line to begin with.

Cutthroat is one thing. Disgraceful is another.

Last week, after a man was found dead in the parking lot of , the airport parking reservation and deals website used the death as an opportunity for convincing customers to use its service.

Related: Malaysia Airlines Scraps Ill-Conceived ‘Bucket List’ Promotion

Catherine Clifford • Senior Âé¶¹Éçship Writer at CNBC

Catherine Clifford is senior entrepreneurship writer at CNBC. She was formerly a senior writer at... Read more

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