When Michael Friedman opened his mailbox on Oct. 9, he found a lumpy white package. It had a clear return address, Nissan Information Headquarters in Fenton, Missouri, but also, incongruously, the Rx symbol for a medical prescription. The postmark, from ZIP code 90746, was unfamiliar.
He was, understandably, nervous. "Just like everyone getting packages these days, we're absolutely nuts about it," he said. "Always in the back of my mind these days, you think there might be something in there."
His wife, Wendy, was afraid to handle the parcel, so Friedman, an accountant who lives in Marlboro, New Jersey, opened it. Inside, he found a pill bottle, and the couple panicked.
They wanted to throw the package away. But, Friedman said, curiosity got the best of him. A letter was also enclosed. The first sentence read, "There's a disease out there."
"At that point," Friedman said, "my curiosity turned to anger."
The letter, he found, was simply a promotion for the 2002 Nissan Altima, intended as a play on a medical consultation. "Inside your prescription bag," the letter read, "you'll discover a pamphlet full of details on the totally new Altima including active ingredients, side effects, technological advances and how Altima affects the body."
The letter, dated Sept. 28 (but postmarked on Oct. 5 in, it turns out, Long Beach, California), concluded, "We look forward to seeing you, and treating you, soon."
The company sent 200,000 of the letters -- part of its "cure for the common car" campaign for the Altima -- to current Nissan owners starting on Sept. 28.
The "cure for the common car" advertising theme was conceived in January, and this particular campaign was designed in March.
The company is mailing a letter of apology to the 200,000 households that had received the package. As for the remaining 52,000 on the mailing list, von Zumwalt said, "We'll probably send them a more traditional brochure."
Taiwan aims to open 18 representative offices and seven Taiwan Tourism Information Centers worldwide by next year to attract international visitors, the Tourism Administration said on Saturday. The agency has so far opened three representative offices abroad this year and would open two more before the end of the year, it said. It has also already opened information centers in Jakarta, Mumbai and Paris, and is to open one in Vancouver next month and in Manila in December, it said. Next year, it would also open offices in Amsterdam, Dubai and Sydney, it added. While the Cabinet did not mention international tourists in its
EYES AT SEA: Many marine enthusiasts have expressed interest in volunteering for coastal patrols, which would help identify stowaways and illegal fishing, the CGA said Six thousand coastal patrol volunteers are to be recruited for 159 inspection offices to enhance the nation’s response to “gray zone” conflicts, Coast Guard Administration (CGA) sources said yesterday. Volunteer teams would be established to increase the resilience of coastal defense systems in the wake of two unlawful entries attempted by Chinese over the past three months, Ocean Affairs Council Minister Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) said. A former Chinese navy captain drove a motorboat into the Tamsui River (淡水河) in Taipei on the eve of the Dragon Boat Festival in June, while another Chinese man sailed in a rubber boat into the Houkeng
NEXT LEVEL: The defense ministry confirmed that a video released last month featured personnel piloting new FPV drone systems being developed by the Armaments Bureau Taipei and Washington are pushing for their drone companies to work together to establish a China-free supply chain, the Financial Times reported on Friday. A delegation of high-level executives and US government officials were yesterday to arrive in Taipei to discuss with their Taiwanese counterparts collaboration on drone technology procurement and development, the report said. The executives represent 26 US manufacturers of drone and counter-drone systems, while the officials are from the US Department of Commerce and the US Department of Defense’s Defense Innovation Unit, along with Dev Shenoy, principal director for microelectronics in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense
‘ANONYMOUS 64’: A national security official said that it is an attempt by China to increase domestic anti-Taiwanese sentiment and inflame cross-strait tensions The Ministry of National Defense’s (MND) Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM) yesterday denied accusations by China that it had undermined regional security by carrying out cyberattacks against targets in China, adding instead that Beijing was responsible for raising tensions and undermining regional peace. The Chinese Ministry of State Security on WeChat accused a hacker group called “Anonymous 64” of targeting China, Hong Kong and Macau starting earlier this year through frequent cyberattacks. The group carried out cyberattacks to seize control of Web sites, outdoor electronic billboards and video-on-demand platforms in China, Hong Kong and Macau, it said, adding the hackers’