The Dawn Detergent Dodge
1 Bottle = $1 To Save Wildlife*
So, there’s the heart-warming, tear-jerking commercial – Dawn saves wildlife, as scenes roll by of adorable ducklings and otters being cleaned after an oil spill. (The close-up of the soapy little otter paw clinging to the side of the tub gets me every time.) Wow! I think – that’s great! They’ll donate a dollar for every bottle we buy. I’ve never bought Dawn before, but hey, I will now (see above re the otter paw)…oops, wait a minute. I catch the fine print at the bottom of the screen at the end. (That asterisk is never a good thing.)
*Up to $500,000. Must visit www.dawnsaveswildlife.com to activate donation.”
Activate donation? Can’t I just buy a bottle? Better go look at the web site.
So, if I want to participate, I have to go online, go to the web site, look at eligible products list, where the code is on the bottles, and “activate the donation.” I could technically activate it after I bought the detergent…but I wouldn’t know the details if I hadn’t previously visited the site, including the ineligible products and program rules. Then, after I buy one of the eligible products, I’ve got to come back to the site and enter the code on the back of the bottle, along with my zip code and purchase location. The donation limit and activation requirement is also at the bottom of the page on the web site, in teensy print.
Then there are the program rules:
1. In the US, program open from July 1 thru October 1, 2009 for all English and Hispanic consumers in US locales (??? So, if I’m Korean??? Talk about absolutely tone-deaf marketers…or maybe lawyers…this is a ginormous company after all.)
2. In Canada, program open from July 1, 2009 thru December 31, 2009 for all English and French consumers in CDN locales (Sorry, Chinese-Canadians…)
3. Valid zip codes will be necessary to redeem
4. Only eligible products with bottle donation codes valid within the promotional period will be accepted
5. $500,000 donation cap in total
Now, I appreciate that someone’s heart was in the right place, but the end result looks a lot like the standard rebate scheme scam…designed so to limit the actual rebates paid. In this case, it all sounds good to the customers (if they don’t catch the asterisk). However, I’m sure Dawn has estimated how many people will buy Dawn and never actually activate the donation (Just as companies plan for rebates.) They know they’ll probably never hit $500,000 (the web site shows about $19K so far), but even if they do, they’ve limited it and accounted for it on their books.
This fine print nonsense kills the “save wildlife” message.
Why not simply say, “For the next 90 days, we’re donating $1 for every bottle of Dawn sold.” (Yes, I realize this presents some accounting challenges, but they KNOW how much they ship and automated inventory systems are pretty dang sophisticated these days.)
Oh – and I won’t be buying Dawn. I can contribute directly online to many worthy “save the wildlife” causes. And, they don’t care of I’m “English” “Hispanic” or Venusian.
Related Post: Losing the Sale With One Symbol (Yes, the asterisk.)
Tags: customer service, Dawn, rebates, Dawn saves wildlife, marketing, marketing troubleshooting
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Spot on, so to speak. Truth is the quickest way to build a sense of trust.
And this is why I never, but never, “donate” to a charity via a product sale tie-in or promotion. I’ll send my dollars direct, thank you very much. No need for charity middlemen in this day and age.
I wonder if they “donated” the soap for the oil spill cleanup? Think the otters went home and got a bill in the mail?
And then there are all those companies painting their products pink and slapping pink ribbons on them. Same rebate type scam for breast cancer.
The otter may not have gotten a bill, but you can bet he was flooded with junk mail coupons and “special” offers…;-)
Mary,
Okay, okay, calm down. PART of me agrees with you a LOT, since it does seem that the rules are in place to discourage ACTUAL donations, and they won’t likely approach the cap.
Yes, there are other ways to give money directly, but WOULD you, to THIS cause at THIS time? If not, they will show a positive incremental gain, so that’s a GOOD thing.
Some wildlife group ought to run an ad (donated, I’d hope!) to tell people about the DAWN effort, and in such a way as to identify the right products and the procedure in advance to streamline (and increase likelihood) of activation!
Hey, it beats “win a chance to be at a taping of “More to Love.”
Mike, ANYTHING beats winning a chance to be at a taping of “More To Love.”
And, they’d show a lot more positive gain if Dawn would donate the money. The company isn’t doing this out of the goodness of their hearts – they’re using emotion to sell more soap.
And, I disagree that any wildlife group should run an ad – if they run one – it should be for direct donations – not to help sell more soap. (Or, Dawn could pay for – put on Hulu and move into the 21st century.)
Hey, I really like the Hulu idea. And I realize the “do an ad to sell Dawn” idea was off the wall. I was just looking at it from the perspective that a relatively small group would write a check for $10 or more to a wildlife group, especially now. But as to choosing a particular dish soap out of three or four comparable brands is not a big imposition. I’d rather have a buck from a million people than $10 each from 15,000.
The message wouldn’t be “Hey, go buy Dawn.” It would be, “they’re all the same anyway. Make it Dawn and you help us.”
But Mike, here’s the problem: It’s not just fake charity, it’s deliberately designed to deceive and mislead. “Buy this product and $1 of your money goes to this charity which we’ve suggested you should want to support.” Except — it doesn’t really, unless you read all of the fine print and go to our website and jump through an incalculable number of hoops and expend more time and energy than you can imagine.
Our economy is chock full of these gimmicky, deceptive come-ons, all of which combine to create a climate of cynicism and distrust — distrust not only of the seller but of the charity that chooses to align itself with this sort of scheme, and even of our own charitable impulses because they make us vulnerable to this sort of exploitation.
Okay, Jill, there’s certainly truth in what you say. I just did a blog post myself on the same type of thing from car dealers, like how the words “up to” always fool people. If it said “Buy Dove and enter your purchase online, and….” then I’d continue arguing. But yes, I guess it will work like rebates — they’ll get more sales that DON’T turn into donations than DO, even among people brought in by the promo.
It’s still more than the charity would have had without it, but yes, the overall damage done to ad credibility is a bigger deal.
You talked me into it. THOSE BUMS!
Oops. make it Dawn. There’s “Real Beauty” in admitting your typo…..
Looks like a scam to me. I was annoyed to see the fine print telling me to activate the donation. When I went online to do so, I kept getting an error message and although I tried numerous times, I could not access the “activation” part of the site. Then I tried to email the company to request that my donation be activated and the email would not send. I will never purchase another product from this company. False advertising albeit clever. Will donate directly to wildlife organizations from now on.
Wow, I have my bottle in hand and am ready to jump through hoops. But wait, where is the number I need to enter? It’s freaking invisible, lol. It’s actually in small clear text. I had to don reading glasses to make it out, and it’s super hard to see once the bottle is empty.
BTW, the site says it’s good until 1/04/2010.
Luckily I only bought this product because it was cheaper than Palmolive, my preferred dish dish washing liquid!