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."
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