Thursday, February 07, 2008

Gratuitous Foam

Ok. So now what. I can't simply throw it away!


Before I could even get my head fully around my rage I found myself on the HP website.
I penned this letter to a fellow named Mark Hurd, as he seemed to have a lofty title... Chairman of the Board, Chief Executive Officer and President.


I am writing to tell you how EXTREMLEY disappointed I am in your company’s latest advertising promotion.

I received your gimmicky box labeled 'Top Secret'. Mind you, I have no issue with the premise. But WHY oh WHY did you feel the need to include a completely gratuitous 9x12 piece of Styrofoam?
How could a company, as environmentally conscious as you claim to be, send out a substance that has a degradable time frame of NEVER -- for absolutely NO reason. There was NOTHING in the box except for Styrofoam.

I will not visit your site, not even to play along for my free gift. I will also do my best to repurpose this Styrofoam to keep it from floating around in the environment for all eternity.

Your advertising has not only failed to promote your products or your company – but has truly upset me.


I sent it, proudly, from my work email, with my full e-signature on Monday.
No response yet.

hmm, I think perhaps I can do better than to simply repurpose...

6 comments:

Landlady of Fat said...

Good for you!

Syd said...

I probably would have tossed in a gratuitous F word. But, I'm pretty sure that guarantees no response.

SassyFemme said...

As I was reading that I wondered if you sent it from your work email or your personal email. Good for you, but I would have chickened out and sent it from my personal.

clammy said...

Let us know if you hear back from Mr. Hurd. These companies really ought to know how irresponsible some of their marketing is. In fact, it probably does the opposite of what they want.

Anonymous said...

Nice bit of consumer activism. Mr. triple-titled Hurd (because clearly none of those positions require any actual work of him, so he can do them all!) hasn't heard (heh) the last from Weese!

Suzanne said...

That is something my mom would do. :)

Can't wait to hear what you hear back!