Watching a Mazda Network TV commercial, last night I see them talking about their brand new SUV. They compare it favorably to Nissan's Murano. This, in itself, is silly - but it gets better...or worse... Then, they show the Mazda SUV pull up to a stoplight, beside a Nissan Murano. Both cars are apparently on demo rides - customers are behind the wheels of the Mazda and the Nissan with salesmen sitting in the passenger seats. The Mazda salesman leans out of his window and gives his business card to the customer who is driving the Murano. The Nissan salesman immediately grabs the business card, in desperation, and throws it out of his passenger side window. This is supposed to be funny.
FUNNY? No. It shows a lack of professionalism on the part of the Mazda salesman. I would never buy a product (are you reading, Mazda?) form a salesman who lowers himself to those tactics! For a sales person to intentionally interupt another sales person while selling is an absolute violation of basic decent behavior. It shows lack of manners, too. If this is funny, what does it say about us? What does it say about Mazda??
Here's the solution:
Stop running the ad.
Fire the ad agency who wrote and produced the ad.
Fire the Mazda "suit" who approved the ad.
While you're at it, fire the guy who hired him.
Oh, and by the way, in the commercial, the Mazda salesman was more handsome and fit than the Nissan salesman. In the real world, this is never the case!
