Pathetic Marketing Ploy

I get home today, check the mail and I find a letter that says its from the US Treasury giving me an update on those handy dandy stimulus checks due us taxpayers. I get in, open up to see where that check is and low and behold its a local Nissan dealer sending me a "Guaranteed Loan" and telling me that they are the place to spend that stimulus check. From this direct mail piece, I have decided that the very moment I get this check, I am going to cash that puppy and use the $600 to $1200 to go further in debt on an automobile that I really don't need, as I am paying off an automobile currently that fulfills my needs fully.

I then take a deep breath and think... "What idiot of a marketer thought this is the best way to spend a client's precious capital on getting new consumers in the lot." This violates the new trend of authenticity in marketing that really wins consumers and keeps them for the long term.

I wonder if the genius (internal employee or marketing firm) that actually let this through really ever had parents that cared enough to teach them that lying is not acceptable behavior. Deceptive marketing really doesn't lead to a ROI in the end, does it? The client should really have come to the realization honestly that the burn is on their brand and that the consumer will end up thinking of them as more shady than honest people that are trying to make a better life for their customers. Maybe the real fool of this folly is the client that let their brand be placed in a pathetic attempt by a marketer (whether internal or from a firm) to win dollars from an already stretched consumer base.

For that marketer, I would have them write on a chalkboard 500 times... "I will not lie to consumers. I will not lie to consumers. I will not..."