Marketing Shivers

There can't be anything else worse for business than to have the owner of the company sail off a cliff and be killed while using the company's product. But this is exactly what happened when James W. Heselden, owner of Segway, the company that produces the one-person electric personal transportation vehicle that somewhat resembles a pogo stick with wheels, fell 30 off a cliff in England while using a Segway all-terrain type model.

Mr. Heselden bought the Segway company in 2009, and was also the inventor of other industrial products that were used by the military.

Imagine Emeril cooking up a pot of something, spooning it to an observer, or even tasting it himself, and he suddenly starts choking and dies on the set. Cut to commercial.

Years ago the Hale-Bopp comet people collectively committed suicide. When their bodies were found in their dormitory-type quarters they were all clad in Reebok sneakers. Certainly not the association Reebok was looking to be part of: outfitting a suicidal cult.

And there were the Reverend Jim Jones people who added poison to Kool-Aid and wiped themselves out years ago in Guyana. Sidewalk sales of Kool-Aid surely fell after that for a while.

It's not always suicide that can taint a product. Years ago on Randalls island the Road Runners Club of New York held a 6-Day marathon race. It was certainly an ultramarathon. The runners got rest periods, but basically keep running around a quarter mile track. It was difficult getting corporate sponsors because no one wanted their logo on someone's shirt as they were being carted to the morgue. Luckily, no one died, and the event was never held again.

Enterprise embarrassments can happen in restaurants, as well. Pete Hamill tells the story that one night when he was in the Lion's Head pub someone at an adjoining table apparently just keeled over and died of a heart attack.

This caused either Pete, or someone with him, to ask the waitress, "What did he order?"

New York.

http://onofframp.blogspot.com/