Agent Accidentally Sparks Anthrax Scare
A Louisiana insurance agent thought he had a clever marketing idea sending out Tylenol tablets to clients, offering to solve their "insurance headaches," but the U.S. Postal Service turned his scheme into a crushing experience that sparked an anthrax scare.
"Before the mailing went out, everybody Id talked to said it was a really wonderful idea. They loved the letters, it just so happened that the Tylenol pills got crushed [in the mail] and it went bad from there," Scott Welch, owner of the Welch Insurance Agency in Bossier City, La., told National Underwriter.
Mr. Welch explained he was trying to attract new customers when he mailed out hundreds of letters with a Tylenol tablet attached inside, to emphasize his marketing pitch that buying insurance from his agency would relieve people of "insurance headaches."
One company in Shreveport, La., receiving the marketing letter ended up calling 911. Investigators and hazardous-materials experts arrived at the scene, but soon determined that the suspicious powder was not a toxic substance. "We were notified by someone who received the letter, plus there were a fire chief and investigators there at the time as well," Mr. Welch said.
Mr. Welch emphasized that nobody was upset, "because they know it was an innocent mistake." The pills were just an eye-catcher, he explained: "It was a way for us to say, 'Here s how to solve one of your biggest headaches in regard to your insurance.'"
He said he doesn't think there is going to be any legal or regulatory consequences directed at this marketing mishap: "At least that's what I am hoping for. Hopefully this is over with."
Reproduced from National Underwriter Property & Casualty/Risk & Benefits Management Edition, March 12, 2004. Copyright 2004 by The National Underwriter Company in the serial publication. All rights reserved.Copyright in this article as an independent work may be held by the author.
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