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Aug 31 2007 12:00am EDT

Ford: Two-Tone Paint Job Backfires

Ken Wheaton dings Ford in today's AA, and demonstrates the inherent risk of over-pushing a soft idea. When Wheaton saw two press releases on the same day on the same subject from the same company, he not only found the "news" unappealing, he saw it as an opportunity for ridicule.

Quoting the ledes of both releases, Wheaton facetiously concludes:


"That should drive sales right through the roof."

The barbed story shows the perils of trying to oversell an idea that is light on newsworthiness. While a single piece of AA snarkiness shouldn't be hard to stomach at Ford, Wheaton's take seems to be the only coverage prompted by the releases.


Jack Flack is not sure if the dual effort was actually over-pushing, or if it was just a lack of coordination between various fiefdoms within Ford. On the Ford site, one release comes bundled with "technology" releases, while the other is grouped with "manufacturing" releases.


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