CorpComms Magazine

Mini's deadly cold front branded PR gaffe

by Clare Harrison on 02/02/2012 12:45:00 in CorpComms Online | share me: del.icio.us | digg | reddit | Tweet

Car manufacturer apologises for stunt after sponsored cold front claims dozens of lives

BMW has apologised after paying an advertising agency to name a deadly cold weather front sweeping Europe 'Cooper' in a bid to promote its Mini Cooper brand. 

The car manufacturer's agency paid £190 to name the cold front but the campaign hit trouble after the freezing conditions caused by the weather system led to dozens of deaths.

 

On its website, BMW's advertising agency Sassenbach says that naming the front after open-air vehicle was a 'wind-and weather-proof idea'.

 

Germany's meteorology institute allows the sponsorship of weather systems.

 

The cold weather in Europe has led to at least 100 deaths, mainly in Poland and Ukraine.

 

In Ukraine alone, nearly 950 people are being treated in hospital with hypothermia and frostbite, the Associated Press news agency reports.

 

According to the BBC, the Munich-based advertising agency said it was no longer commenting on the unfortunate association between the progress of the severe weather and the Mini Cooper.

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