Our voices ARE heard, we just have to use them!

From: kristina noall
Sent: 6/29/2009 01:04:53 AM
To: minutemaid.support@na.ko.com
Subject: Minute Maid Contact Form

To Whom It May Concern,

I've just seen your new commercial for your Enhanced Pomegranate Blueberry juice, where a man mistakenly thinks a nun who teaches his daughter is a woman he had recreational sex with in Cancun.

I wonder, have you thought about it in those terms? Just summarized it so simply?

Needless to say, I was disgusted. Really, do you have to use such sleaze to sell JUICE? Aren't you supposed to be something of a family company? Is that what you want to teach the kids who drink your juice, that it's funny to have sex with multiple people with no commitment? Please, don't lower your company's standards to fit in with every other who uses sex to sell products. Yes, it's common now. But isn't that all the more reason to think of something different?

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,
Kristina Noall

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from: Minute Maid Support <minutemaid.support@na.ko.com>
to: kristina noall
date: Wed, Jul 1, 2009 at 10:29 AM

Thank you for contacting The Minute Maid Company, Ms. Noall. We sincerely appreciated receiving your comments regarding our advertising.

It is a challenge to appeal to as many consumers as possible. Your constructive criticism helps us know when we are not successful in accomplishing this difficult task. Please be assured that your comments have been shared appropriately.

We do not want to lose your patronage. Your feedback is important to us, so please feel free to contact us again whenever you have comments to share.

Chicquilla
Industry and Consumer Affairs
The Minute Maid Company

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I know their reply wasn’t ultra-personal, but still, someone did read my letter. I don’t do this that often, write to every company who airs a sleazy commercial or ad (I doubt I’d have time for anything else if I did), I was just so appalled when I saw it that I just sat down at the nearby computer then and there. But what if we all took the time to tell them what we usually just think to ourselves?

It wasn’t hard. I looked up the company’s website (two seconds on Google), clicked Contact Us, and left a comment.

I’m resolving to act rather than be acted upon a lot more often.