Insensitive and Poorly Worded- Advertising Professionalism

Adidas came under fire earlier this year for perhaps the most poorly worded marketing email in history. The sports brand sent out an email congratulating runners who "survived" the Boston Marathon with the subject of the email reading: "Congrats, you survived the Boston Marathon!" People were outraged and critics slammed the email as insensitive in the wake of the 2013 bombing at the same marathon that killed three people and wounded dozens more. Adidas tried to make amends by sending out an apology email to the recipients of the original email.

Adidas spokeswoman Maria Culp said. "We are incredibly sorry, clearly, there was no thought given to the insensitive email subject line we sent Tuesday. We deeply apologize for our mistake. The Boston Marathon is one of the most inspirational sporting events in the world. Every year we're reminded of the hope and resiliency of the running community at this event." (Peterson, 2017)

Although this is just an email blast, it is still extremely important to go over a check list of professionalism as you are still representing your company, and still advertising. To me this email is very unprofessional, and the effectiveness of the marketing strategy is just poor. The purpose of this ad, was to congratulate the participants of the boston marathon for finishing the race, but as we can see, word choice for this particular subject is vital in portraying a positive message of congratulations...

In opposition, I can see why Adidas sent this out. Not thinking anything of the events of the bombing, they were just trying to congratulate the runners, but they could have done so with a subject line more along the terms of "Congrats on finishing the Boston Marathon!"

Peterson, H. (2017, April 18). Adidas apologizes for congratulating runners who 'survived' the Boston Marathon. Retrieved from https://www.businessinsider.com/adidas-apologizes-for-boston-marathon-tweet-2017-4

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