7481: Mopping Up The Pine-Sol Mess.

Pine-Sol executive Hank Mercier left a second comment at Pepper Miller’s Pine-Sol Post. Not sure if this guy should be commended—or if he’s been sniffing too much of his own product. Here’s what he typed:

By hankmercier | Oakland, CA

Thank you so much to everyone for your comments and links. I don’t think it is appropriate in this public forum to speak to our targeting work specifically, but know we keep a very close ear to the ground (through insight work and advertising testing) on our campaigns and Diane.

It is not that I (and we) don’t recognize sentiments exist about Diane’s role in our advertising, I was simply saying that we universally do not hear it from consumers directly when we test our ads and when we travel with Diane. Your point is fair about it being unlikely that consumers would be rude to Diane when we are on the road with her…point taken!

To that end, Pepper, I’d love to see the research you reference if you’d be willing to share.

Pepper, I completely agree there is an opportunity to have Diane play a more prominent role in our Powerful Difference program and, while she has played a role for years in Sisterspeak events and countless other engagements, we have begun integrating her into our Powerful Difference campaign on TV as well.

Check out this link for an example of how Diane is helping our Powerful Difference program.

(http://www.powerfuldifference.com/make-a-difference/)

Lastly, I absolutely will take a look at your book, Pepper, and look forward staying in touch.

Thank you again, everyone, for your comments.

Yeah, the folks at Pine-Sol must be thanking God it’s Friday. They’re probably praying that some new natural disaster or celebrity scandal will emerge to deflect attention from the mini-PR gaffe. Why does Mercier want to see Miller’s research? Um, the thread is all the evidence you need, friend. It’s actually pretty funny how Mercier signs off, as if he’s closing the meeting. Sorry, dude. The World Wide Web is one place where advertising people don’t feel obligated to do what the client wants.