Where Is The Connection Between City Sports & The Furlough?

I work across the street from a City Sports in Boston and go there often during the week to pick up an assortment of needs for my workouts. Since I go there once a week or so, I figured that it makes sense to give them my email for when they have any special deals in the store.

I desperately needed a new pair of goggles and planned to stop in the store on my way home from work. Shortly before I packed up my things, I received an email from City Sports that had the following subject line:

"Government Employees: We'll Never Shut Down Great Savings"

At first I simply stared at the subject line blankly. I was sure there had to be a connection there that I was missing other than a shameful attempt to latch onto a timely subject for their own profit.

Sure enough, there wasn't anything more to it than a shallow marketing attempt to encourage consumers to shop at their stores.

"Don't let the government shutdown keep you from the fall fitness apparel and accessories you've been waiting for. From now until the end of the current shutdown enjoy 15% entire in-store purchase."

In public relations, we frequently see journalists talking about bad pitches that they receive, especially in the wake of a timely news topic when PR people try to spin (and I hate associating that word with our profession) a connection between the current event and whatever product their are hocking. So it doesn't come as a surprise to me that marketers would make the same mistake in this instance.

This is just a hunch, but there is nothing that tells me that any government worker that has been furloughed from the shutdown is going to give a damn about 15% off at City Sports to get the "fall fitness apparel and accessories [they've] been waiting for." I imagine that they are slightly more concerned with when they will be able to start working again and can continue providing for their families.

Playing off a current event like this to reach your entire customer base is one thing since not everyone is directly affected by the shutdown. But trying to draw in the one group of people who are suffering the most - the furloughed workers - from this is pathetic.

I strongly hope that they pull the promotion and apologize to those government employees who are not currently working. Because I would bet they would give up the next 10 fall seasonal accessories to be back at work.