Aaron walked into the office this morning holding a mysterious Blackberry-sized box.
"BRING THIS PHONE INTO ONE OF OUR STORES AND TRADE FOR A FREE BLACKBERRY CURVE" it screamed. He informed us that it appeared every house in his neighborhood had been slammed with the promotion. The box contained a retail display unit of a Blackberry 8830, courtesy of Verizon. A retail display unit is a mock phone - it looks exactly like the real deal, feels the same, weighs the same, and probably takes almost as much material and energy to construct as a working model. How many people actually still believe in the "this phone is free!!!" concept? I think most of us long ago cracked onto the fact that you simply pay for them over the duration of the contract, disguised in other fees.
So. What is Aaron now supposed to do with this thing? Seeing as it is mixed media and cannot be simply placed in his home recycling bin, is he supposed to try to locate an adequate recycling facility and bring it there? Do you think he appreciates for this imposition on his time?
This got his attention, sure. Long enough to bring it into Capsule, dump it on my desk, and suggest we rant about it. But, unlike a two year old child, we expect Verizon to be aware that there's a difference between positive attention, and the opposite. Inspiring feelings of admiration, trust and energy in your consumers is preferable to anger, inconvenience and eye-rolling, yes?