Angry Letter: Mitsubishi
Dear Wayne Killen, Vice President, Marketing
Mitsubishi Motors North America, Inc:
I was just assaulted by your television advertisement for "Adrenaline Days," the one where a busload of people yell as loud as they can at the sight of an "Adrenaline Days" newspaper ad. Is an ad campaign based on a grating noise really the best you could do? Who wants to hear that? Who could resist changing the chanel? If I showed up in your living room and yelled at the top of my lungs during a football game you were trying to enjoy, would you buy my product? You couldn't have turned me off your product more if you'd shown a 30 second spot of Dame Edna pleasuring herself. I hope you liked the yelling more than I did, because it's a noise you'll be hearing again. It's the sound your sales numbers will make as they plummet towards their death.
Sincerely,
Angryman
Mitsubishi Motors North America, Inc:
I was just assaulted by your television advertisement for "Adrenaline Days," the one where a busload of people yell as loud as they can at the sight of an "Adrenaline Days" newspaper ad. Is an ad campaign based on a grating noise really the best you could do? Who wants to hear that? Who could resist changing the chanel? If I showed up in your living room and yelled at the top of my lungs during a football game you were trying to enjoy, would you buy my product? You couldn't have turned me off your product more if you'd shown a 30 second spot of Dame Edna pleasuring herself. I hope you liked the yelling more than I did, because it's a noise you'll be hearing again. It's the sound your sales numbers will make as they plummet towards their death.
Sincerely,
Angryman
6 Comments:
Advertising isn't necessarily to get you to the store that moment to buy their goods, but rather much advertising is just to get you to remember the brand name, some kind of subconscious social science thing. Hence the notion that bad publicity is better than no publicicty.
Given: Mitsubishi sales are awful (in Canada anyways); the likely poor general association of Mitshubishi and cars; the likely target audience of the youngest, 'hippest' car buyers who think the ad is cool (versus young angry men); and the fact that you not only remembered the ad, the manufacturer and then told everybody about Mitsubishi - I would say the ad was pretty darn successful.
Given: the ad is hugely annoying; I now hate Mitsubishi; any tuna/dolphin canning company can dispell the "no such thing as bad publicity" theory; I wouldn't set foot in a dealership except maybe to yell in salespeople's ears - I would say the ad was pretty darn awful compared to something like the Coors Light twins.
Mitusbushi also builds ugly cars...
Car ad that works? Porsche Boxster. No Music, just the sweet sound of a highly tuned engine (although one variant has an annoying musical montage of different engine notes)....
THE AD JUST SUCKS. I wouldn't drive a Mitsubishi if you gave one to me. I've been wasting my time trying to find someone I can email to complain...
Mitsubishi here, I believe, is simply seeking to garner attention and to get heard above the zillion other products advertised on TV and on other mediums.
Advertisers for this product likely want the attention of the 18-34 year-olds and hopefully anyone else happening to watch TV. If it takes a screaming crowd on a bus to do it, they'll do it. If it doesn't work, it's easy enough to pull and try something else. (I recall a previous Mitsubishi ad that had 4 or 5 young people crammed in one of their cars listening to music, bobbing their heads and waving their arms to the beat. The ad, music and lifestyle it portrayed did nothing for me but then again I don't think I am their target audience.)
Yes, I'd prefer that the Coors Light Twins promoted each and every product on TV versus a screaming crowd riding a bus or images of an ugly, crappy Mitsubishi. But I'm not sure that would equate to companies getting their name and product out and in front of the rest.
It would be sweet if people like anonymous and I had an email address to complain to. Unfortunately, all I could track down was a mailing address. So if you hate the ad and don't mind buying a stamp, send your complaint to:
Wayne Killen, Vice President, Marketing
Mitsubishi Motors North America, Inc.
PO Box 6014
Cypress, CA 90630-0014
If anyone knows the email address format used by Mitsubishi Motors NA, please post it here.
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