Ultimately, Daimler-Chrysler decided to pull the ad (you can read their concession here), but was this ad ever a good idea? Smart was (and still is) going to have as difficult enough time selling these cars in the US, so I don’t believe insulting our engineering was the right route to take.

I read a number of comments about this ad on various blogs that can be summarized in one user’s comment: “Please note the puny size and ugliness of the car. America not involved in the making of this little bug of a car sounds pretty good to me!”

That’s the attitude of many Americans, and I doubt they’re going to be swayed through insults.

If anything, this shows how quickly word of mouth can spread on the Web. I’m sure Daimler-Chrysler’s South Africa people thought they could get away with this, but they learned the hard way about the blogosphere. As, NeanderNews says, “Blogosphere 1, Multinational Corporations 0.”

Multinational Corporations need to learn, accept and embrace the power of the Web. What you do somewhere, if meant to offend somewhere else, will be found out by that somewhere else, and you need to understand that. Otherwise, you’ll be saying, “the intention of the communication headline of the billboard was never to reflect negatively on the American society, but rather to refer to the vehicles features and product characteristics” and sounding like an idiot.

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