Stupid Marketing Watch: Inside the Boston Bomb-Threat Flyer
What is it about marketers in Boston and their uncanny ability to concoct promotions that make people think they’re in danger of imminent death?
On the heels of a Cartoon Network bomb scare that paralyzed the city in January, police evacuated a strip mall last week because of a botched fax promotion that some Bank of America employees mistook for a bomb threat.
The internal flyer, aimed at promoting Small Business Commitment Week, featured the headline “The Countdown Begins,” with graphical representations of a metronome-type timing device and a hand with a lit match lighting the fuse of a bomb.
Unfortunately, only the graphics came through and the fax arrived at the Ashland, MA branch of Bank of America at the same time as a suspicious package. Hence, the evacuation.
Maybe the bank employees overreacted. However, is it just me, or is sending bank branches promotional material with bomb imagery not such a good idea?
Just imagine the conversation that hatched this scheme.
Vice president of marketing: OK, Bob. We have to come up with a promotion for Small Business Commitment Week, but things have to go more smoothly than our last effort.
Promotions manager: You mean that one where we had guys running into the branches with stockings on their heads yelling: “Our home-loan interest rates are about to Hit The Floor!!” That one didn’t go so well, did it?
VP of marketing: No, it sure didn’t. But it really wasn’t our fault. Everyone sooo overreacted. You know Bob, marketing is all about capitalizing on people’s fears. And it has to have urgency. Our “Hit the Floor” promotion had both of those elements, big time. I don’t know what everyone got so worked up about.
Promotions manager: Yeah, they are a little jumpy in this company. Remember our “Hand the Teller a Note” promotion? Alarms went off across the Eastern Seaboard on that one!
VP of marketing: Yes, but they responded, did they not? We are quite the team, Bob. Now lets get to brainstorming.
Promotions manager: Wait a minute! I’ve got an idea forming. It involves a bomb and a clock…
