Howard started for some reason talking about the fact that it was about time for him to buy a new car. He was mentioning that he was thinking about buying a truck. A few of the folks on the show mentioned a few trucks to consider and he commented about how he really needed to get on finding a new car. He said he'd never own a General Motors Car (can't blame him!), but other than that, I don't think he had any specific leads on the truck he wanted.
Then, out of nowhere, the screeners put a call through from a woman supposedly from Ford Motor Company. She was all excited to be talking to Howard. She didn't sound too sophisticated, so I'm not sure what her position was with Ford, or even whether she was a dealer. In any event, without hesitation, she offered Howard a free 2 year lease on a brand new Lincoln Navigator.
Now, I don't know about you, but when I heard this, I was completely pissed off. Howard Stern, the man who earned a $500,000,000 5 year contract (no, I didn't add an extra zero accidentally) DOES NOT NEED A FREE CAR. What the hell are they doing offering a half-billionaire a free car? I don't know if many other people were as pissy about this as I was, but I just thought it was ludicrous. There's no way their PR company could have possibly approved this call. At least, I hope not.
Come on, Ford - in your struggles, don't you think you should be doing something positive for the community like giving away cars to homeless shelters or something rather than giving freebies to the ultra-rich? Dumb move. Not that I really ever would, but now I'm DEFINITELY never buying a Ford. Idiots. Even Howard thought it was pretty ludicrous that they were offering him a free car, and promptly turned it down. Kudos Howard - it just goes to show you that your ego has not gotten the best of you.
Product placement gone wrong! Oh, and for all of you folks that don't have Sirius, I highly recommend it.
Garret Ohm
1 comment:
Good comment, LadyVal. I agree to some extent, except for the way it all went down. Had they talked about this off air and orchestrated the donation, etc, it would have worked swimmingly.
When Howard was looking at the Audi A8 a few years ago, we were actually working with Criswell Audi in Annapolis. Howard purchased that car for its full asking price, or close to it, and it was a tremendous benefit to the sales of the A8.
I still stand by my thought that this was negative PR for Ford. They should have contacted him to pique his interest, and then allowed their superior product to do the selling. And then, when he talked about the Navigator on the air and they really could have reaped the rewards!
Garret
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