This Horribly Insensitive Marketing Campaign Is Everything Marketing Shouldn’t Be
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.
Got a promotional email from which is using a man’s death as promo material. Extremely offended
— Chris Britton (@iamchrisbritton) We sincerely apologize about this mistake and can only extend our apologies to you and all those offended.
— Airport Parking (@airport_parking) Your comment “Don’t be late and end up in a crate”, to sell parking on back of dead man at Ohare is horrible
— Mark Carroll (@markcarrollnow) We sincerely apologize about this mistake and can only extend our apologies to you and all those offended.
— Airport Parking (@airport_parking) Glad I wasn’t the only one to take to task over their tasteless email this morning.
— Caitlin Childs (@nerdcoregirl) What the holy WTF.
— Scott Starr (@awaltzforvenus) my thoughts exactly. I am so ashamed to work in marketing when people like this are out there too.
— Caitlin Childs (@nerdcoregirl) We sincerely apologize about this mistake and can only extend our apologies to you and all those offended.
— Airport Parking (@airport_parking) 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