As the fires in Southern California burn down, the storm begun by Fasano and Associates over their ill-thought email is still building. In days past, a marketing or public relations mistake could be forgiven and forgotten about in time, but today’s climate is totally different. With blogs recording events for posterity, and with the growing popularity of email marketing, that email you send today could still be available in cyberspace not just tomorrow but for months, years and maybe even decades later.
Too bad Fasano and Associates didn’t think their latest email through a little bit more before they hit that ’send’ button.
Coming from the well-respected consumer list management firm, this email was a shock: Against a back image of flames, in all yellow capital letters was the line, “What else is burning in Southern California? Check these hot lists out!”
Whoops. Guys, don’t make light of a natural disaster. Don’t ever joke about a disaster, but especially not to promote yourself. At the time this email was sent out, San Diego’s Qualcomm Stadium was filled with thousands of evacuees, people were losing their homes by the hour, there was a lengthy and growing list of dead and injured. Unsurprisingly, the email was immediately met with major protest and is circulating all over the Internet as an example of the type of email you should never send.
To her credit, Fasano and Associates founder Patricia Fasano sent an apology email to the same mailing list after she discovered that what she describes as an “overzealous employee” sent the improper email. This is the type of marketing mistake that can kill even a respected and well-established business, and Fasano and Associates executives say they are implementing safeguards to ensure that nothing like this ever happens again.
So, being that Fasano and Associates is located right in the heart of the California area that burned, this could have been a golden moment for them. They made a donation to the California State Firefighters Association three days before the inappropriate email was sent out, but instead of heart-warming stories about their charitable acts, their tarnished reputation is front and center.
The thing that really stumps me about this is that Fasano and Associates are marketing professionals. They’ve been in the email and list management business for 25 years. They should have known better, and this could have been avoided had Fasano implemented some sort of check-and-balances system to screen any potential emails for insensitive content. Self-promotion is one thing–indeed, all of marketing is built on it–but if there is even any semblance of that promotion coming at the expense of someone else’s misfortune, it should be considered taboo.
It’s a whole lot easier to do damage control before you hit the send button.
Posted on November 2nd, 2007 by Vanessa
Filed under: Email, Marketing and Promotion
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