Jeep Czech Republic Uses Failed "Moose Test" Photo on Facebook

Vojta Dobe
by Vojta Dobe

Oops! Have you tried maneuvers like this?

One great thing about PR and marketing is that you can often turn a massive fail into a great win — like when a Slovak PR agency for Mercedes-Benz posted a picture of the new CLA Shooting Brake next to a pool.

A random commenter said he’d like them to take the Merc for a swim. Mercedes’ PR agency replied, “If your post gets more than 1,000 likes, you can choose whether we reverse or powerslide the car into the pool.”

Naturally, the post got nearly 2,000 likes within hours. Mercedes responded with a nicely done video of CLA Shooting Brake getting drowned by a Black Stig, promising they would hire their social media manager back if more than 1,000 people shared the video. In the end, Mercedes drew a great deal attention to their new rakish wagon and lost nothing.

Unfortunately for Jeep Czech Republic, sometimes a fail is just a fail — like a few days ago when the official Czech importer of Jeep posted the photo you see above of a Grand Cherokee getting up on two wheels.

In itself, the picture would not inspire much trust in the Jeep’s handling. With American cars being frowned upon in Europe because of their supposed lousy handling, the photo would be enough of a fail on its own. To add insult to injury, the photo comes from the infamous 2012 “Moose Test” where the Grand Cherokee almost rolled over. After Jeep upgraded the model, it passed flawlessly.

After my colleague Jiří Červenka shared the post with stinging commentary (“Social media marketing level: Change the PR agency. Jeep shares a photo from infamous Moose test which brought international shame and necessitated vehicle modifications”) and got written about in Czech media magazines, the post was deleted.

No word on the perpetrator’s job situation, but we assume his position is about as stable as that Grand Cherokee.

[Source: Jiří Červenka]

Vojta Dobe
Vojta Dobe

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  • Driver8 Driver8 on Dec 07, 2015

    a moose once bit my sister

    • Drzhivago138 Drzhivago138 on Dec 07, 2015

      No realli! She was Karving her initials on the møøse with the sharpened end of an interspace tøøthbrush given her by Svenge - her brother-in-law - an Oslo dentist and star of many Norwegian møvies: "The Høt Hands of an Oslo Dentist", "Fillings of Passion", "The Huge Mølars of Horst Nordfink"...

  • Corey Lewis Corey Lewis on Dec 08, 2015

    "promising they would hire their social media manager back if more than 1,000 people shared the video." Happily, it only has 866 shares to date.

    • Vojta Dobe Vojta Dobe on Dec 08, 2015

      After he was fired, he probably moved from Bratislava to Prague and got hired at Jeep.

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