When it comes to PR disasters, few look worse than this. Then again, when you use a carjacking/kidnapping-turned-murder to try to push products out of your showroom, you deserve all the bad karma you get.
Abe Sauer of Brand Channel has this story:
Liaoning Tianhe Buick, a dealership in Jilin’s neighbor province, posted the following (now deleted) on its Weibo page:
A few thoughts following the Changchun stolen car incident: When buying a car it’s completely okay to choose higher technology. Tianhe Buicks carry the OnStar GPS system, allowing the lockdown of a stolen vehicle at any time and place. An easy heart, a piece of mind, likewise why not buy a completely safe Buick!!!!! Sales Hotline: 024-86547880 86547881 QQ:521279389 2523275273 www.inthbuick.com.
More incredibly, the dealership posted a picture of the two-month-old baby who was sleeping in the back of the SUV that was stolen in Changchun. The carjacker eventually turned himself in and admitted to strangling and burying the toddler in the snow.
Sauer again:
Needless to say, Weibo users are incensed. Some called the Buick dealership “virtueless.” Others called for the account to be suspended while others used curses. One said simply, “Go die.”
Liaoning Tianhe Buick has posted an apology, but the damage may have already been done. Or does all publicity remain “good”?
A solemn apology: At 11:45 pm on March 5 Liaoning Tianhe Buick improperly posted to its Weibo. To the family of the victims and to the public, we very deeply apologize for any emotional damage and hurt feelings.
China Buick PR Disaster as Dealer Uses Deceased Baby in Ad (Brand Channel)
This is horrifying. Just when we thought we have seen and heard everything in China…we now have this abomination.
The General Motors’ Buick division in the U.S. must file a complaint about this immediately. The GM Buick China group must disenfranchise this ghoul of a dealer and ostracize the owner of the dealership. He should get on his knees to the parents and the extended family of this lovely child and apologize until he can no longer speak.
What shitty parents to leave the child unattended in a vehicle.
Shitty parents? They were carjacked you idiot!
Here’s something weird:
纽约偷车嫌犯发现车内有婴儿 报警后弃车离开
http://world.huanqiu.com/regions/2013-03/3705408.html
Usually when the GT digs up some small-time news from the US that resembles something that happened recently in China, the point seems to be “see, it happens everywhere,” rather than to invite comparisons that are unflattering to China, which those commenting oblige with.
Well, there is also another category, where social problems inside China are highlighted and the result is to say ‘see, our society is weak and needs the guidance of the party’.