November 20, 2006
George Joseph
Chair and Chief Executive Officer
Mercury Corporation
4484 Wilshire Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90010
Dear Mr. Joseph:
This is a customer-oriented suggestion in response to the current Mercury television advertisements. Please allow me to offer input on your commercials as it is rare to have the resources and opportunity to communicate with an immense audience of California Street and Highway drivers.
Since 1982, I am a customer contributing to Mercury’s $3 billion annual revenue stream, where I value your work product for our home and multi-car insurance. I hope this impresses you enough to contemplate about Mercury’s commercial campaign and improve its posture toward more of a driver education agenda, particularly on courteousness and safety features.
Driving is serious, and the State of California drivers can ill-afford the luxury from its demonstrated poor driving patterns to review silly reasons to buy auto insurance. Each hour of highway time adds to the probability not arriving home safely due to some driver’s disregard for human safety. Mercury should care about its television broadcast investment to educate people on the blunders commonly made behind the wheel today.
Since 1968, my wife and I consider ourselves decent California drivers. Our experiences show the growing population of fellow drivers impervious to patience and who have become somewhat mindless regarding other people and property. Although your Mercury employees have been very accommodating to my misfortunes as an insured customer, good service comes in the mist of rising industry costs associated from inexcusable drivers. Uneducated drivers cause our premiums to have too many imbedded contingency fees for hit-and-runs, anonymous parking lot slams (without notices), indefensible-speed fatalities, and the like.
Accordingly, Mercury has an immense opportunity to make commercials that inform and educate on positive driving techniques. Regardless of what other competitive insurance firms may be broadcasting, Mercury can enhance its brand image without stooping to buffoonery about extraterrestrial beings. Ad agencies work at the behest of the client, not the other way around. Whereas, ad agencies can loose site of the core mission of its clients, and over compensate on campaigns to gain adulations from peers (other ad agencies) instead of in this case customers and prospective customers.
Thank you for your time. I will appreciate any review of Mercury generating instructive and more constructive ad campaign tones.
Sincerely,
Dean L. Jones
AP 1804—-
CC: Gabriel Tirador, President, and Chief Operating Officer