Opportunistic Marketing from Planned Parenthood
Brand: Planned Parenthood
Execution: E-mail/Viral
Target: Pro-Choice Voters
Rating: ****
Reviewer: David Vinjamuri
Description:
An e-mail campaign urging people to support Planned Parenthood with a small donation, but with a twist. The e-mail reads as follows:
Hi allI don’t know how you feel about Planned Parenthood, but this is a great idea. I just did it myself, and feel fantastic about it. Simple, fast & cheap. And toward a great cause. Pass it along…Instead of (in addition to?) us all sending around emails about how horrible she is, let’s all make a donation to Planned Parenthood. In Sarah Palin’s name. And here’s the good part: when you make a donation to PP in her name, they’ll send her a card telling her that the donation has been made in her honor. Here’s the link to the Planned Parenthood website:https://secure.ga0.org/02/pp10000_inhonorYou’ll need to fill in the address to let PP know where to send the “in Sarah Palin’s honor” card. I suggest you use the address for the McCain campaign headquarters, which is:
McCain for President
1235 S. Clark Street
1st Floor
Arlington , VA 22202PS make sure you use that link above or choose the pulldown of Donate–Honorary or Memorial Donations, not the regular “Donate Online”
This advertising blog has been told that the concept for this campaign originated not from an agency but from a staffer within Planned Parenthood. The result of this campaign was two-fold: first, it generated $1 million in donations for Planned Parenthood. Secondly, it got good media coverage and generated positive publicity for Planned Parenthood. Half of the donors were not on Planned Parenthood’s active e-mail list, so there was a strong viral component to the campaign.We like three things about this campaign:
- Opportunistic - This campaign takes advantage of the popular media attention for Vice Presidential Candidate Governor Sarah Palin and her pro-life stance by giving pro-choice advocates a simple way to send a message - literally.
- Simple - No separate infrastructure was created to support this campaign. Donors were sent to Planned Parenthood’s existing donation site.
- Clever - Making the donation in honor of Gov. Palin and sending the messages to the McCain-Palin campaign headquarters created a media story and made the e-mail compelling.
What Doesn’t:
There is a fine art to informal e-mail campaigns like this. If the campaign feels inauthentic or forced, it will fail. If it feels fake or contrived, it may even get negative blog coverage. This campaign walks a line. It doesn’t represent itself as originating from Planned Parenthood (we have been told that it originated from a Planned Parenthood staffer), which carries some risk.
Branding Bottom Line:
Planned Parenthood finds some use for Sarah Palin after all.
ADDENDUM:
This from Planned Parenthood -
Hi David-
Just read your blog post about the viral email campaign concering Planned Parenthood and Sarah Palin.
I wanted to clarify something- the viral email did not originate with Planned Parenthood, and the origins of the email remain unknown. Also, 2/3 of the donors are first time donors to PP.
two and a half weeks ago, we had many media inquires about the viral email, so we issued a press release on it:
http://www.plannedparenthoodaction.org/about-us/newsroom/press-releases/302.htm
It is inaccurate to characterize the email as originating from Planned Parenthood.
Thanks.
***
Tait Sye
Planned Parenthood Federation of America
www.plannedparenthood.org
Planned Parenthood Action Fund
www.plannedparenthoodaction.org
This advertising blog apologizes if our unnamed informant was incorrect about the source of the e-mail. Our coverage is not a political endorsement.
October 17th, 2008 at 4:58 am
Good for Planned Parenthood! One: John McCain represents the kind of MAN, who is always sleeping around with plenty of women, “chasing skirts” as they “bar hop”, then when one or more of their “conquests” they like to brag about while slugging back their Anheiser-Busch Beers (distributed by Hensley Beer Distributing Company) ends up KNOCKED up — these “moral giants” tell the girl or woman “HEY, not my problem!” and run away as fast as they can! Thus, the poor girl is faced with either A)giving away the baby B) raising it alone, on a single mother’s cheap-ass wages or C) having an Abortion!
So we NEED Planned Parenthood because they help to EDUCATE young women, & can provide BIRTH CONTROL so they don’t get pregnant, when some JERK decides to cheat on his WIFE, like John McCain had a habit of doing to CAROL, the Wife who he ended up deserting, & divorcing, to marry a Rich “Sugar Mama” Beer Heiress with a real taste for Percocets & Vicodin, leaving CAROL McCain with two kids to raise.
Thankfully, John McCain’s wife was taken under the wing of Pres. Ronald & Nancy Reagan, giving her a job in the White House, even though she was crippled by a car accident and in bad shape! ROSS PEROT paid her medical bills, while McCain was in Vietnam.
So I’m happy Sarah Palin’s name helped raise money for Planned Parenthood, especially with the BUSH wrecked Economy in such a depression, a lot of Women will be having trouble paying for BIRTH CONTROL PILLS, Doctor’s visits, Pre-Natal care, etc.
At least in the IRAQ WAR, we won’t see the tragedy of THOUSANDS of women in Iraq getting pregnant by an American G.I. or Navy Pilot — like happened during the VIETNAM War, as I am sure John McCain is well aware, of how those poor children were OUTCASTS because they had American FATHERS.
Now, we need somebody to make an “OPPORTUNISTIC” Letter, based around the fact that John McCain doesn’t want poor Women to have their HEALTH Insurance pay for BIRTH CONTROL, but is fine with them paying for MEN to get their VIAGRA or CIALIS pills covered — so they can sleep around, and get women pregnant!
At which point of course, if John McCain and Sarah PALIN get to pick Supreme Court Judges, the pregnant girl or woman, maybe RAPED by her father, will be FORCED to have the Baby and give it away if she is too poor to take care of it.
Which will be “MISSION ACCOMPLISHED” for the far right-wing who’ve been doing NOTHING to prevent Teen pregnancy or help Planned Parenthood & other groups EDUCATE kids about Sex, choosing “ABSTINENCE ONLY” so poor girls like SARAH PALIN’s young daugher, get pregnant out of ignorance & have to marry some boy who doesn’t WANT to marry them. Shotgun Wedding.
October 19th, 2008 at 2:01 pm
I am appalled that you would rate this as a good plan. “Opportunistic” in this (and the spirit of the article, especially your closing line) seems more like “immature” - something that does not bode well for our industry.
I will give you the credit that such a program may be effective for the audience of PP. I just think we have a role as marketing thought leaders to promote good quality marketing efforts based on good motives. I completely disagree with your role in playing an activist role for the promotion of such conduct in our industry. Effective may be measured in donations to PP, but that does not mean we have to celebrate it as quality.
Respectively disagreeing.