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[TheSpoiler]

It does indeed look like an email blast. All things considered, it'll still hurt Ford nonetheless.

Yeah, that's the bigger issue. The dealership probably has no idea what in the hell is going on and is frantically trying to fix it while screaming at the people who did it.

There probably won't be legal action since this is a small screw up. But on the flipside, the dealership is going to get in major shit for not being compliant. And telling journalists that it WAS compliant is going to give them another huge ding.

 

[texhnolyze]

How will this hurt Ford? I think outside NeoGAF and some websites, no one will even notice.

Well, this will at least hurt their reputation. It's the information age.

 

[keltickennedy]

Welp, some underpaid production designer at a graphic design firm who was working on the Ford client account just got.....FIRED WATCH.

 

[CosmicQueso]

Doesn't look exactly the same, it's just very similar.

Ford Motors needs to get more flak for misrepresenting the Freedom Sales Event.

 

[brawly]

Free money. Congrats.

 

[DarkConfidant]

Someone better watch that.

I had to scroll back up to reread that. Good one. XD

 

[Zeth]

So this is indeed a single dealership (there are thousands, individually operated)

 

[ShadowKhaN]

Surprised at the amount of people here that do not understand sarcasm. cringing so hard

 

[keltickennedy]

So this is indeed a single dealership (there are thousands, individually operated)

The problem is also going to be with the graphic design firm that dealership hired.

 

[Rellik]

Apparently they've also stolen background art too, shown in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EN8HEzWNG1Y

That one just looks like a rip off, unless someone can provide the image they've taken?

 

[Captain Zyrain]

Marketing person for that dealership apparently used this site to get it. (sourced in the Game Informer article)


"Forest Patrol flat wallpaper" without any sourcing, watermark, copyright, anything. It's that easy.

Lazy as all hell.. but believable.

Ford Motors needs to get more flak for misrepresenting the Freedom Sales Event.

And hamburgers.

 

[DeathSparks]

Oh damn that's crazy.

If this was just an individual dealer, I can understand the mistake/error... The individual dealers generally operate independently from the parent company and they aren't really savvy when it comes to technology issues.

I could see some dealer paid a local designer $250 to do an email template, and he just ripped this off completely and sold it to them.

But if Ford corporate sent this template out to the dealers to use, that's freaking insane.



Aah, yeah it's a dealer.

jsut went to the QuirkFord website, I think they're pretty used to stealing artwork and ideas

Their header is a total ripoff of facebook:

Dear lord

 

[slavesnyder]

Ford Motors needs to get more flak for misrepresenting the Freedom Sales Event.

Excellent

 

[TheSpoiler]

The problem is also going to be with the graphic design firm that dealership hired.

They don't hire graphic design firms. It's basically an all-purpose service where most of the elements are weak but do the job just enough to get it done. Like the reason most dealerships have shitty websites - they aren't made to look nice - but they are made to function.

I'm actually really surprised that the dealership is making up their own emails.

Typically, I would expect corporate to have email formats and branding they would want the dealerships to use that have bee cleared through a corporate marketing.

This is to 1) keep this from happening
2) make sure that the dealerships are promoting similar message as the corporate marketing department.

The compliance thing is, for the most part, letting them do whatever under strict guidelines.

Most of them don't care about how having a similar message. It's the dealership's job to sell the cars, and some of them compete directly, so they let them do whatever.

 

[KingV]

I'm actually really surprised that the dealership is making up their own emails.

Typically, I would expect corporate to have email formats and branding they would want the dealerships to use that have bee cleared through a corporate marketing.

This is to 1) keep this from happening
2) make sure that the dealerships are promoting similar message as the corporate marketing department.

 

[DeathSparks]

Sean Vanaman says that the artwork did not came from the site Western claims (or any other wallpaper site).

This artwork in particular comes from the company's website that don't appear elsewhere.

 

[bomblord1]

Sean Vanaman says that the artwork did not came from the site Western claims (or any other wallpaper site).

This artwork in particular comes from the company's website that don't appear elsewhere.

What exactly are those elements?

 

[Deadstar]

This joke flew over so many heads!

Sarcasm can be hard to read online.

I hope Campo Santo get some free cars out of this. That would be a cool ending to the story.

 

[stan423321]

I'm actually really surprised that the dealership is making up their own emails.

Typically, I would expect corporate to have email formats and branding they would want the dealerships to use that have bee cleared through a corporate marketing.

This is to 1) keep this from happening
2) make sure that the dealerships are promoting similar message as the corporate marketing department.

The tricky part is that a lot of businesses using dealerships or anything similar don't want them to feel coherent, creating illusion of competition (and to some level actual dealer competition) and thus reducing chances of one thinking about car company's actual competition. Not sure about cars, but that's almost definitely what's going on with cable TV companies around here.

 

[Nostremitus]

So Ford didn't do it? It was one local dealership? The title should be changed for accuracy.

Dealerships are privately owned businesses who have a licensing contract to sell Ford cars, this wasn't done by the Ford Motor company.

I'm actually really surprised that the dealership is making up their own emails.

Typically, I would expect corporate to have email formats and branding they would want the dealerships to use that have bee cleared through a corporate marketing.

This is to 1) keep this from happening
2) make sure that the dealerships are promoting similar message as the corporate marketing department.

Dealerships are privately owned businesses, they aren't owned by the car companies. Ford does their own corporate marketing, but anything that has to do with a specific dealership sales event is the responsibility of that business owner.

In most of the US it's illegal for an automaker to sell to the public directly.

 

[ViciousDS]

Ford Motors needs to get more flak for misrepresenting the Freedom Sales Event.

meh, this designer is just equal to the smarts of their engineers. Ford Focus 2012 and beyond all should have been recalled for tranny problems. Was going on 6 months waiting for a warranty part....said fuck it, traded the bitch in and am never buying a Ford again. They can rot

Spoiler

Yes, its just one dealership lol

 

[Wozman23]

 

[ekim]

Perfect.

 

[red731]

 

[DeathSparks]

What exactly are those elements?

Campo Santo's Twitter page has that as their banner and I'm assuming they just stole the artwork from that, also they could've just searched for firewatch wallpaper then copy and paste it on their Dealership website

 

[BobTheFork]

You think Ford would be familiar with it. Isn't a fire watch why they recalled all those vehicles?

 

[DeathSparks]

LOL

 

[CHC]

Welp, good for the Campo Santo guys. Money + exposure, and little actual inconvenience.

Same thing happened to a friend of mine with music from his band - Disney used it totally unauthorized. Basically just called Disney... They were eager to sweep it under the rug, and he got a fat check in the mail without setting foot in a courtroom.

 

[Falchion]

Shout out to the Ford ad I got on this page, I can feel the Freedom difference already!

 

[TheSpoiler]

Welp, good for the Campo Santo guys. Money + exposure, and little actual inconvenience.

Same thing happened to a friend of mine with music from his band - Disney used it totally unauthorized. Basically just called Disney... They were eager to sweep it under the rug, and he got a fat check in the mail without setting foot in a courtroom.

The dealership (not Ford, because Ford wasn't the ones who did this) aren't going to pay out anything.

The content creators might be the ones hit with a lawsuit, but over something like this, it probably won't happen.

 

[Übermatik]

How the fuck did they think they'd get away without anyone noticing this? The art direction and graphic stylings of Fire Watch were some of the biggest things going for the game!

 

[breakfuss]

Not really Ford, but one of their franchisees.

 

[Springfoot]

Doesn't look exactly the same, it's just very similar.

Someone is in desperate need of an eye exam. Even the little birds are in the exact same positions - they did no alterations to the original illustration.


EDIT:

Sarcasm can be hard to read online.

Yeah, Poe's Law is about this exact issue. And with such a short original message, there's no other context to indicate that anything was sarcastic, especially when there are people on this very forum who've said similar things about similar situations with absolute sincerity.

Spoiler

Smilies and /s tags exist for a reason.

 

[DeathSparks]

Shout out to the Ford ad I got on this page, I can feel the Freedom difference already!

Freedom for ads!

 

[CHC]

The dealership (not Ford, because Ford wasn't the ones who did this) aren't going to pay out anything.

The content creators might be the ones hit with a lawsuit, but over something like this, it probably won't happen.

If they get threatened with legal action they'd be smart to just settle. It won't be THAT much money but something like this would probably be worth at least $25,000 - $50,000 for them to avoid the hassle of a legal battle that they'd probably lose.

 

[Lijik]

What exactly are those elements?

i wonder if sean was sent the full mailer and it included the artwork at the bottom of this page?

 

[JoeyJungle]

Oh damn that's crazy.

If this was just an individual dealer, I can understand the mistake/error... The individual dealers generally operate independently from the parent company and they aren't really savvy when it comes to technology issues.

I could see some dealer paid a local designer $250 to do an email template, and he just ripped this off completely and sold it to them.

But if Ford corporate sent this template out to the dealers to use, that's freaking insane.



Aah, yeah it's a dealer.

jsut went to the QuirkFord website, I think they're pretty used to stealing artwork and ideas

Their header is a total ripoff of facebook:

Lots of dealerships actually contract their newsletter management to advertising companies. I used to work for one that did work for the main advertising company for Toyota and had a few big contracts with an american dealer. They had a couple contracts for newsletters for specific regions (so people subscribed to dealership newsletters in the NY region would all receive the same newsletters/promotions (generally 4/5 of the ads between regions are the same, with one being specific for each region depending on weather. So people in the midwest or NY get stuff about snow maintenance, people in florida get other stuff).

They also had a bunch of individual contracts with dealers around the nation, and those would be much more customized. They'd have the same generic template, but dealerships would say what pics to include or what promotions to mention (stuff like 20$ off oil change, and mentioning that they helped sponsor a charity event, with a photo of their staff at the event or something).

For a good looking customized webpage like this, it may be that the dealership itself contracted some dude to set up a page, but I think that it's very unlikely. Most dealerships are absolute shit about updating their website, and only have these webpages when they're handed to them. Also them to use the manufacturer's name instead of the dealership's name (Ford Freedom sales event), that usually means that it's being passed on to them from the advertising company for the region.

I'm not super web savvy, but following the redirects to that ad might let you find out who's hosting the ad (whether it's on the dealership's servers, or if it's on the advertising company's servers).

edit:

Also, I don't know who designs dealership websites, but I've seen hundreds of them and there's about 5 templates that almost every single one uses. I have no idea what the backstory to that is, but I wouldn't call out this dealership for ripping off the facebook thing. There's at least 100 other dealerships based off the exact same template.

 

[BumblebeeCody]

Someone is getting fired.

Everyone at Ford on "fire watch"

 

[DeathSparks]

i wonder if sean was sent the full mailer and it included the artwork at the bottom of this page?

I was looking for that, thanks for finding this.

 

[awilliams213]

The local Ford dealership marketing person's designer probably wasn't a gamer and came across Olly's design and "borrowed" it major oops

 

[j-wood]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EN8HEzWNG1Y

This is a video posted by the Ford company. Pretty sure it's using the artwork as well, and this isn't just at a local level, unless i'm mistaken.

 

[Commo]

I don't see stolen art.

I see Freedom!

Free market libertarianism!

 

[QuantumBro]

Slightly unrelated: If I was playing a video game and took a screenshot at some point, would it be illegal to use that screenshot in a marketing campaign or a retail product?

 

[opticalmace]

cheer100

 

[ss_lemonade]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EN8HEzWNG1Y

This is a video posted by the Ford company. Pretty sure it's using the artwork as well, and this isn't just at a local level, unless i'm mistaken.

That isn't even the same art-wise. Similar colors though

 

[Nostremitus]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EN8HEzWNG1Y

This is a video posted by the Ford company. Pretty sure it's using the artwork as well, and this isn't just at a local level, unless i'm mistaken.

That's not the same art.

If anything, the designer for the dealership was looking for art similar to what is used in the video and stumbled upon the Firewatch art.

 

[DeathSparks]

Slightly unrelated: If I was playing a video game and took a screenshot at some point, would it be illegal to use that screenshot in a marketing campaign or a retail product?

Unless you credit the artist or company and/or get permission from them that is illegal, it's pretty much plagiarism

 

[PsychoSoldier]

That isn't even the same art-wise. Similar colors though

Yeah, they were probably trying to use a similar palette as this ad and didn't check the source of the art.

 

[Sapiens]

Someone is getting fired.

Lol that's a slap on the wrist at most.

 

[fastballspecial]

Let's clear up some things.

This is a dealership. It's not the company. The dealership is a local thing which sells the brand's cars, which in turn gets a cut or something. I don't remember the particulars, but so long as the dealership plays nice with the brand, the brand will support them with a bunch of things, like giving them money to sell their cars (because it's basically marketing).

To keep them in line, they set up a ton of rules called compliance. Breaking those rules can mean huge trouble for a dealership, like cutting out their funding and shit like that. Once again, that's just a general basic understand from what I remember.

So to avoid fucking up on their own, they hire SEO and web content people to do the web work for them. This is an email blast, so it goes out to people on their email list (at least it looks like one).

Whoever Quirk Ford hired (which is probably separate from the person who does their website).is in massive trouble. They went online, found a cute pic, and put that shit up. if it's an email blast, that's not something you can take down. Even if it isn't, the brand is going to be furious at this.

So, yeah, be careful about what you use, because it could majorly fuck up your business. It might not ruin them, but it's going to hurt.

http://www.quirkford.com/

Best post in here. Thanks for being the voice of reason and for clearing some things up.