Kevin asked if I ever received any response from my letter to Dunkin' Donuts. I did, almost immediately. Here's the (unsigned) letter they sent, dated June 2.Thank you for sharing your comments. We always appreciate hearing from our customers. The intent of the online ad featuring Rachael Ray wearing a paisley silk scarf was to promote iced coffee. Given the surprising and truly unfortunate interpretation of this ad from some of our consumers, we decided to pull the ad and replace it with another as it is no longer serving its intended purpose, which was to simply promote our iced coffee---nothing more, nothing less.
At Dunkin' Donuts, we value all of our customers and remain steadfastly committed to making your experiences with us both memorable and pleasant. Thank you, again, for making us aware of your concerns; it is appreciated.
I didn't blog about it before because it gave me some mixed feelings. I felt at the time, and still do, that the proper response to Michele Malkin and her vicious crew is to say, "No. You people are idiots led by bullies, and we're not knuckling under."
At the same time, I understand where they're coming from. Once Malkin & Co. framed the image as Rachel Ray in a kaffeyeh, there was no getting around that that's how that ad would be viewed, both by the idiots who wanted to ban the ad and people like me who wanted to defend the ad. But Dunkin' Donuts doesn't buy ad time to stand up for freedom and diversity; very few companies do. They just want to sell their product.
While I would appreciate a stronger statement from Dunkin' Donuts along the lines of, "What are you, idiots?" I can't entirely fault them for pulling out of the fight altogether. I'm disappointed, but no longer angered. (At them, anyway. Malkin's ignorant fearmongering is a whole 'nother story.)
Except, a little bit with myself. The end of my letter to Dunkin' read:
...at this point, there's no avoiding the controversy. The only question is, which side of it are you on? Do you side with Malkin and her fear-mongering, or are you willing to stand up against the fear and distrust she engenders?
Rob
3 comments:
So...does this mean you've started picking up a large light and sweet at your local Dunkin' Donuts again? And, most importantly, have they restored the vanilla-creme filled powdered donuts? :)
Seriously, though, it would have been nice if they made that statement publicly when they pulled the ad so that people would immediately know it was more of a practical advertising thing than agreeing with the complainers.
No... but as a practical matter, I didn't do it often anyway. I'm trying to lose weight, and Dunkin Donuts is NOT my friend in that regard.
So I also haven't seen any vanilla-creme filled powdered, sadly. :(
I wouldn't call it a boycott anymore, though -- but I know I'll think of their knuckling when the crave hits me, and that might be the extra edge I need to stay away.
I would have definitely liked a stronger public statement as well.
You know I have know idea where a Dunkin Donuts is around me. There used to be 3 or so I knew of, but all of them are closed....
Post a Comment