Social Marketing Backlash In China Over Murdered Baby
Hyundai and Buick are feeling the heat in China, and the industry might rethink past practices of freewheeling Twitter snark. Hyundai and a Buick dealer made remarks about the quality of their products after a 2-month-old baby was abducted along with the RAV4 it was in. Chinese commenters did not like it at all.
On Tuesday, car and hijacker were found after one of China’s largest manhunts. The suspect confessed to strangling the child and dumping the body in the snow.
According to Bloomberg, “a posting on Hyundai’s Weibo account on March 6 made references to a missing child and vehicle as it promoted the safety features of the new imported Santa Fe SUV.,” causing a backlash from micro-bloggers on Weibo. Hyundai deleted the post and apologized.
A day before, Liaoning Tianhe Buick wrote: “A few thoughts following the Changchun stolen car and child incident: When buying a car it’s completely okay to choose brands with better technology. Tianhe Buicks carry the OnStar GPS system, which can track down the location of a stolen vehicle at any time and automatically report it to the police. Feel at ease, have peace of mind, if you’re going to buy a car, why not choose a completely safe Buick!!!.”
Dayna Hart, a Shanghai-based spokeswoman for GM, told Bloomberg GM is monitoring the situation and isn’t ready yet to comment.
Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.
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A lot of the peoplwe above must not be familiar with the one child policy of the communist party. Their attitude towards something such as this tweet smacks of "me thinks thou dost protest too much". China is the country which forcibly aborts late term babies when an extra child is discovered. It is the contry where girl babies are routinely murdered so the parents can concieve a boy . It is the country where a geniune gender imbalance is being created. It is the country where baby girls were left in the open to die and this was custom which went back hundreds of years. There are plenty more examples of where the Chinese have shown themselves to be barbaric in their treatment of the innocents . Their expression of anger at some car dealers tweet is a bit rediculous to even consider.
Dear TTAC. Please employ a moderator.
It's truly a shame how far TTAC has fallen. I've followed the site since it's inception with it's biting and insightful commentary on the automotive world and the people in it. Sadly it's degenerating to the same crass BS that's swamping virtually everything on the internet. A genuine loss for the enthusiast.
+1 for Bill. TTAC probably attracts more viewers with controversial stories and their loosely moderated gongshow of racists, xenophobes, cold warriors and garden variety trolls. Still, it's detrimental to the stated purpose of TTAC, to report on the car industry. Now it's getting to the level of Youtube comments. Some of you guys really need to look up Kitty Genovese, the ultimate attribution error, the fundamental attribution error, etc.