CONSUMER STALKING



A major CPG company, Unilever, is launching a promotion for its OMO detergent brand in Brazil that utilizes GPS tracking to follow a consumer into their home(s).


Creepy? Outrageous?


The PR effort, mounted by its agency, Bullet, will plant GPS tracking devices in fifty two- pound boxes of the detergent and scatter distribution throughout Brazil (representing about 50 million homes).


When a box is pulled form the shelf, activation of the device will occur and the agency will track and “visit” the consumer at home within “a few hours or days” to let them know they won a pocket video camera and a day of fun at a Unilever event.


Invasion of privacy?


If a consumer refuses to answer the door for the “visit” (Brazil’s crime rate is quite high), the team will activate the device to buzz, alerting the consumer to the promotion.


Not OMO, but OMG!


Is this not like putting a “bullet” to your head? Where’s the thinking that cooked up this law suit waiting to happen?


While on the surface the promotion may sound like "fun in the suds", it has so many risks attached to it that they outweigh any positive return.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is beyond creepy and I agree its a lawsuit waiting to happen - although strategically they may have chosen Brazil because there must be some loop hole. The thought that the marketing team even got this past legal is scary enough.

Jake Ramos said...

What do they hope to gain in GPS-ing those consumers? A multi-million dollar market research with a sample size of 50? And for what, probably stuff they could already guess like what people do and where people go. If the consumer who got one of those devices REALLY doesn't want anything to do with it all, will they harass, er, I mean, persistently ask her to give the device back? If one doesn't participate, that's an immediate loss. Bullet must have been playing Alias DVDs during coffee breaks.