When Michael Friedman opened his mailbox on Oct. 9, he found a lumpy white package. It had a clear return address, Nissan Information Headquarters in Fenton, Missouri, but also, incongruously, the Rx symbol for a medical prescription. The postmark, from ZIP code 90746, was unfamiliar.
He was, understandably, nervous. "Just like everyone getting packages these days, we're absolutely nuts about it," he said. "Always in the back of my mind these days, you think there might be something in there."
His wife, Wendy, was afraid to handle the parcel, so Friedman, an accountant who lives in Marlboro, New Jersey, opened it. Inside, he found a pill bottle, and the couple panicked.
They wanted to throw the package away. But, Friedman said, curiosity got the best of him. A letter was also enclosed. The first sentence read, "There's a disease out there."
"At that point," Friedman said, "my curiosity turned to anger."
The letter, he found, was simply a promotion for the 2002 Nissan Altima, intended as a play on a medical consultation. "Inside your prescription bag," the letter read, "you'll discover a pamphlet full of details on the totally new Altima including active ingredients, side effects, technological advances and how Altima affects the body."
The letter, dated Sept. 28 (but postmarked on Oct. 5 in, it turns out, Long Beach, California), concluded, "We look forward to seeing you, and treating you, soon."
The company sent 200,000 of the letters -- part of its "cure for the common car" campaign for the Altima -- to current Nissan owners starting on Sept. 28.
The "cure for the common car" advertising theme was conceived in January, and this particular campaign was designed in March.
The company is mailing a letter of apology to the 200,000 households that had received the package. As for the remaining 52,000 on the mailing list, von Zumwalt said, "We'll probably send them a more traditional brochure."
GET TO SAFETY: Authorities were scrambling to evacuate nearly 700 people in Hualien County to prepare for overflow from a natural dam formed by a previous typhoon Typhoon Podul yesterday intensified and accelerated as it neared Taiwan, with the impact expected to be felt overnight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, while the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration announced that schools and government offices in most areas of southern and eastern Taiwan would be closed today. The affected regions are Tainan, Kaohsiung and Chiayi City, and Yunlin, Chiayi, Pingtung, Hualien and Taitung counties, as well as the outlying Penghu County. As of 10pm last night, the storm was about 370km east-southeast of Taitung County, moving west-northwest at 27kph, CWA data showed. With a radius of 120km, Podul is carrying maximum sustained
Tropical Storm Podul strengthened into a typhoon at 8pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with a sea warning to be issued late last night or early this morning. As of 8pm, the typhoon was 1,020km east of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving west at 23kph. The storm carried maximum sustained winds of 119kph and gusts reaching 155kph, the CWA said. Based on the tropical storm’s trajectory, a land warning could be issued any time from midday today, it added. CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said Podul is a fast-moving storm that is forecast to bring its heaviest rainfall and strongest
President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday criticized the nuclear energy referendum scheduled for Saturday next week, saying that holding the plebiscite before the government can conduct safety evaluations is a denial of the public’s right to make informed decisions. Lai, who is also the chairman of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), made the comments at the party’s Central Standing Committee meeting at its headquarters in Taipei. ‘NO’ “I will go to the ballot box on Saturday next week to cast a ‘no’ vote, as we all should do,” he said as he called on the public to reject the proposition to reactivate the decommissioned
TALKS CONTINUE: Although an agreement has not been reached with Washington, lowering the tariff from 32 percent to 20 percent is still progress, the vice premier said Taiwan would strive for a better US tariff rate in negotiations, with the goal being not just lowering the current 20-percent tariff rate, but also securing an exemption from tariff stacking, Vice Premier Cheng Li-chiun (鄭麗君) said yesterday. Cheng made the remarks at a news conference at the Executive Yuan explaining the new US tariffs and the government’s plans for supporting affected industries. US President Donald Trump on July 31 announced a new tariff rate of 20 percent on Taiwan’s exports to the US starting on Thursday last week, and the Office of Trade Negotiations on Friday confirmed that it
RSS