Be Careful With Your Brand...

unmarketing: To whomever was driving the Espresso.com car on Bloor today in Toronto, you drive like an asshole. Less caffeine.

Having a wrapped or logo on your vehicle is a great idea. Unless you cannot trust your drivers. When I was still in the Oil & Gas Industry I used to drive 200-300 miles a day. No mean feat but still, quite impressive when I would look at my odometer at the end of the week. Driving that much you see every kind of driver.

After getting pegged with two back to back speeding tickets I decided 5 miles (possibly ten if I wanted to push it), was plenty speed for me and my bank account. Then along came the Red Cross Van Driver. This guy was weaving in and out of traffic like a lunatic. Getting up on my bumper then when I would politely tap, he would slow down then come back for more. So I decided best course of action was to get over let him go around and get this guys van number.

He passes me gesturing wildly, flipping the finger of choice, and passing like a demon on a mission. I follow. Matching speeds of 95 mph in a 60. Two lane highway, as well. Not the best driving conditions for a road rage. So i get the number of "How's My Driving" off the rear bumper and I call. I also slow by the way in case any one was concerned for my safety. A very polite volunteer at our local Red Cross Chapter answers. To which I tell her about their speed demon van driver. I am placed on hold, and then the head of the local chapter gets on the phone. I tell my story, stating that now I cannot even see his driver, and was he on a blood run or something?

Turns out, nope. He was just simply supposed to go to a different hospital on a routine run, nothing emergency about it. I hang up, hoping that was the last of it. WRONG!

Two weeks later I am heading in a totally different direction, different county, and there is another Red Cross Van. Cuts me off, flings the finger, everything. I look, it's the same guy. Now once I can understand letting this guy behind the wheel. Twice, that's your fault. Unfortunately for me, we're going the EXACT same way. Saw in the course of driving "near misses" three times. So I get out the old cell phone, call the number I still had stored in there from last time. Call, and no response.

I am willing to give a pass every once and awhile, particularly if the organization is in an emergency field. But, if you are going to go to the trouble of wrapping your brand image on your vehicle, better be darn sure that who is driving it is someone you want associated therein as well. Check their license history, if there are complaints have them drive their own vehicle, or better yet take them out of that capacity pronto. As for the above Tweet, that's replaced those pesky cell phone calls now, and it reaches far more people, faster. Think about it.