I’m with Boeing on this one! As large as a company Boeing and in response to every proposal they receive how are they able to respond individually to everyone that is mailed by unknown people wishing to get their ideas reviewed or possibly for a paycheck. Boeing is an enormous airplane manufacture and to protect themselves through intellectual property laws they provide Harry the 8 year and his father with the standard submission form. I believe that Harry’s father took Boeings response to his son’s airplane idea and essentially tried to capitalize off it. As it is mentioned in the New York Times article Harry’s father John Winsor is a company is a “crowdsourcer” and essentially used this ability to gain notoriety for himself by bashing Boeing standard response to such submission. I believe this is an attempt for Harry’s father to capitalize at his sons expense. I do feel this is a case where the online world makes Boeing into this bad company that has no compassion for its admirers. The father used his twittering expertise to gain a following to pressure Boeing into responding to the inquiry. It may not necessary be a bad thing that the father did this. I’m sure if we look at the financials of the father John Winsor well see some increase in income after this incident. However, it’s the way he went about it by marketing this idea that Boeing responds to kids this way. As a result had to essentially save face by owning up to its “mistakes” and now to spin it into a better light they are going to have a kids drawing contest. Come on? I do not think that airlines would boycott Boeing airplanes for such a petty complaint. I mean come on Boeing is the LARGEST manufacture of airplanes and have been around a very long time. To say that airlines would stop using their planes because of this quandary is absurd. As far as the New Yorker publishing this story, I’m sure the writer couldn’t find something more interesting to write about. Social media is definitely the new wave of advertising and marketing. In fact it is becoming the biggest if not already the sectors of marketing. Millions of people are tapped into twitter and Facebook constantly and every new idea, news story, product or otherwise is marketed to them.
Reference:
John Winsor Blog
E-marketing For Sensible Folk:
A. Miyazaki
New York Times
