letters

Defending coupons

Your story, “Coupon Crimes,” in the April issue gave the industry a black eye. The tone was negative and gave the impression that coupons are not a reliable promotion vehicle. That is not true.

There is good news and bad news about coupons. The bad news is that fraud and misredemption continue to be problems, most recently affecting print-at-home coupons that are illegally manipulated by computers. The good news is that the industry is taking steps to solve those problems. Real progress is being made due to the work of dedicated executives in the coupon industry. It was disappointing to see Promo Magazine lead off with the negative, which has been completely blown out of proportion by the media. The solutions were not given equal time.

Your readers deserve to know what is being done by The Association of Coupon Professionals to insure the continued effectiveness of coupons.
Ron Fischer, President
Assoc. of Coupon Professionals

Pinning further credit

I the Backward Glance column in the May issue of PROMO [“The Power of Pins”] made for interesting reading, but much of the information was less than accurate. As the account director on the Rainbow program and later president and CEO of McCracken Brooks (following Keith's departure), I can assure you that the original idea came from a woman that worked for us at the time, Carey Merritt (now Carey Ide).

Carey was also a key part of the team, along with John Ondov who brought Jack Kelly and the U.S. Olympic Festival to McCracken Brooks in the first place. You did get the Ellen Gomoll part right, she was the art director on this program and worked closely with the team at Rainbow to bring the program to life in store. Given the success of this promotion for Rainbow Foods, the USOF and McCracken Brooks, I hope that when people recall it over the years the information is portrayed more accurately.

I personally met with and sold all 47 participating manufacturers, generating over $1 million in sponsorship fees, which not only paid the cost of the promotion but covered the original $300,000 gold sponsorship fee for Rainbow. Interestingly Sid Applebaum did not want to pay McCracken Brooks a $30,000 planning fee. I went to Sid with a proposal to pay us a 10% commission on the total sponsorship fees generated. He jumped at it and later, when handing me a commission check for $117,500, he remarked it was the hardest check he ever wrote, knowing he could have only paid us the original $30,000 for the work.

I am always surprised how time blurs the truth.
Mark Lenss, Partner
Group One

Rod Taylor responds:
I reported what Keith, Sid, Jack and Ellen told me, without changing a comma in any quote. With that many people telling me that, yes, that's the way it was, I've no choice but to write what you read.

I don't recall Carey's name ever coming up from anyone, which is a genuine pity. Thank you for taking the time to provide your perspective on this fascinating piece of promotion history.

The letters from our coupon fraud story keep coming; pinning down the details surrounding the Rainbow Foods campaign