Late last week Groupon put out a press release indicating that they were "Celebrating President's Day by Honoring Alexander Hamilton". The press release went on to say, "the $10 dollar bill, as everyone knows, features President Alexander Hamilton--undeniably one of our greatest Presidents and most widely recognized for establishing the country's financial system."
A number of websites and blogs, etc. immediately picked up on the mistake (which is somewhat reassuring) and immediately began torturing them over their apparent ignorance. Word has it that at one point during a Twitter exchange, a Groupon representative responded, "We respect everyone's beliefs. You're certainly entitled to your opinion."
Huh? Could the good folks at Groupon really be that confused about fact vs. opinion? Do they really need an emergency history lesson? Or, do they subscribe to the "any publicity is good publicity" school of thought? Were they attempting to help their offer go viral by getting people to write and talk about their apparent stupidity? If the latter is the case, I think it might have worked.
Upon reflection FOUR questions come to mind:
- Do you think this is a case of ignorance or a marketing ploy?
- What do you think about this type of marketing ploy?
- Rather than ignorance or a ploy to get folks talking about their apparent blunder, do you think this could be yet another case of an entity just flat out ignoring facts because it doesn't fit their story line? They wanted to offer $10 off, they wanted to link it to President's Day. Alexander Hamilton is on the $10 bill but he wasn't a President. Aaahh, so what?!?!
- How many people do you think are unaware that Alexander Hamilton was never President?
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