BedTime Mattresses - 819 West 1st Street, North Vancouver 604-812-9633
Deceptive advertising is like Pandora's box, as soon as I opened the door to look around, I kept finding more and more of it. It is literally falling in my lap. I was handed an 'inter-office' memo this morning which I will repeat. Basically, I am just doing this because I find it somewhat amusing, but the truth is, it's fraud. You can't send information out claiming to be someone you are not. It is illegal. I have no intention of being a media/advertising watchdog, especially in a situation like this one, where they are just being plain stupid, but at the same time I really want to finish up on my series into the mechanics of deceptive advertising. I think once people start to deconstruct what is going on in their advertising, they will put more thought into the kind of message they want to put out into the universe.
Or maybe not. It's kind of like knowing that farmed salmon is dyed red from its usually nutrient-depleted grey self, and is ferreted with lice. You still like to eat cheap sushi with pink ginger and wash it down with pink lemonade and red pistachios or McDonalds. You know its wrong, and it's killing you, and you sure do want someone to tell you the truth about it, but changing your behaviour, ah, that's a slower process.
So you can do what you want on your own time. But as for the Interoffice memo, it comes from Bed Time in North Vancouver. Unfortunately, they don't have a website, so I'll put it in the header so they will be able to at least show up on a search engine on this blog.
Inter-Office Memo
Memo - For Immediate Distribution
To: All Staff
From: Management
Date: July 21, 2005
Re: Productivity
It has come to our attention that there has been a decline in overall productivity. This may be due in part to your heavy workload, but chances are, it is because you are not getting a good night's rest. When you sleep, your body repairs and rejuvenates itself to prepare for the next day's workload and stresses. If you are not well-rested, this can lead to asthma, allergies and other sicknesses. If your mattress is more than ten years old, it is most likely infested with an enormous dust mite population, which also leads to a challenged immune system.
Next to your home and vehicle, a quality mattress is one the most important purchases you will make for your health and well-being. Below is information on a mattress sale happening this Friday and Saturday. This might be a great time for you to take advantage of below wholesale prices on high-quality, name brand mattresses. You deserve a great night's sleep!
Where: 810 West 1st Street, North Vancouver
When: Friday and Saturday, July 22nd and 23rd
Time: Friday: 4:00 - 9:00 pm
Saturday: 8:00 am - 5:00 pm
Information: 604-812-9633
posted by Bob @ 10:34 a.m.
3 comments
3 Comments:
As someone who believes in guerrilla marketing I believe this was a creative way of getting past the receptionist filter and having a message distributed around the workplace. The information provided within the "inter-office memo" was informative with an obvious message to purchse a new bed.
It is creative, but it is also inherently dishonest. This is a fly-by night tactic and not something any strong or growing brand would ever want to be associated with.
In 2005 Bedtime used a broadcast fax service to advertise our products inexpensively. Creatively, one of our messages was to the attention of "all employees" so that not only would the receptionist respond to this fax but other employees that might receive this information. One of the aspects of this fax service that was being provided to us was that anyone who did not want these faxes being received would be taken off the list of recipients. This was not being done by the fax service and in turn we received a number of hostile individuals calling us about his matter. Since that time we pulled our advertising and have not returned. None of the product information was misleading and we regret any inconvenience produced from our faxed method of commmunication. The fax company called us recently to let us know that there had been staffing and procedural changes so that those who did not want to have this information faxed would be effectively removed from their system.
It's 2008 and we definitely have not flown away in the night.
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