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You Suck, Jenny B.

Okay, so I get that marketers don’t do their work with the intention of upsetting people. They’re just trying to get you to notice their product. And 99% of the time, their work ranges from helpful to annoying.

But this.

Abby, a 65-year-old retiree living in Central Texas, was shocked when she received a letter addressed to her daughter Hallie. Inside the pink envelope, Abby found a purple card with an illustration of a halved avocado with a heart hovering inside its pit. “Holy guacamole!” the card said. “You’re going to avo baby!” The inscription was vague. “Congratulations!!!” someone had written in quick Sharpie. “I’m so excited for you! I hope you like these.” Signed, with a heart, Jenny B.

It’s a marketing campaign, flooding the receiver with info, coupons, and gift cards for random baby businesses. Some people they hit actually are pregnant. But other people they hit, such as Abby, have lost their child. Or have miscarried. Or aren’t planning on getting pregnant at all.

So take the sting of getting a coupon from Gerber in the mail and multiply it by 10 because you’re getting this congratulations card in the mail along with a whole slew of baby-related crap.

The idea of it made me want to kick over my mailbox.

I know it’s doctors and not marketers who make the promise to do no harm, but… it just seems like a basic line one shouldn’t cross when they’re representing such a potentially fraught situation.

6 comments

1 HereWeGoAJen { 01.26.20 at 8:56 am }

I got this exact card filled with coupons. I remember the avocado and the name. Luckily it came at a time when I was okay, but that has definitely not always been the case.

They suck. They really do.

2 35jupe { 01.26.20 at 9:05 am }

I remember hearing about one of these being sent to a teenager. She was pregnant but her father didn’t know. (this was several years ago.) As I recall, he kicked her out of the house.

It’s a damaging promotion no matter what.

3 a { 01.26.20 at 9:37 am }

It also sounds like a possible scam. Terrible.

4 Cristy { 01.26.20 at 1:42 pm }

Remember the IKEA ad where they asked pregnant women to pee on it to prove they were pregnant so they could be a deal on baby furniture? This is just as bad.

Speaking from experience, most people in marketing are clueless. All they think about it how to make money and get one perspective. The only way they get a clue is when there’s an uproar = loss of money.

So complain. Encourage boycotts. Add the moral argument. Because as soon as the company in question loses money, that’s when they learn.

5 Cynthia J. Coleman { 01.27.20 at 2:01 pm }

That’s crazy, I’d be mad, too! I get junk mail but I mostly get telemarketers on my house phone and on my cell. My house phone is a cordless on VOIP and 90 percent of our calls are telemarketers . We had a power outage this morning and I was glad that the scam calls couldn’t get through, except it also meant that the callers we want or need to hear from can’t get through, either.
I once was told when we were on ATT that the only solution was to get a restricted line and give them numbers you want to hear from, about 5 or 6.
I found an address where you can opt out of receiving most postal junk mail for a 3 dollar one time fee…DMAchoice
ANA
PO Box 900, Cos cob CT. 06807 Hope that helps.

6 dubliner in deutschland { 01.28.20 at 5:18 am }

wow that marketing campaign is awful!! Like seriously, how hurtful would it be to receive something like that in the middle of infertility or loss- it would just feel like a kick in the gut.

(c) 2006 Melissa S. Ford
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