As gaffes go, this would probably be in 2019’s top 10 marketing fails thus far.
Facebook user Mellissa Seah shared her less-than-satisfactory dining experience at The Manhattan Fish Market (MFM) @ Changi Terminal 1, and we aren’t shocked that her post has since gone viral, garnering more than 600 shares and 500 reactions thus far.
Here’s the lowdown of it.
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Free Fish ‘N Chips For Mum, But Wait, Only If Dad’s Around
According to Mellissa’s post uploaded onto her Facebook page on 5 June, what had promised to be a marketing win turned out to be an epic marketing fail.
Mellissa and her family had decided to head to MFM for dinner on 5 June and had chanced upon a promotion with the caption “A Date with Mom, All she needs is a meal with family”.
Unfortunately, Her Family Wasn’t ‘Qualified’
Upon inquiring, she was told that her family “was not entitled to this because [her] family [was] not complete.”
The staff added that she was not entitled to the promotion as “The father [was] missing”.
In the latter part of her post, Mellissa questioned the concept of “family”, what made a “family” “complete” and questioned why various other permutations of “family” were discounted.
She went on to shed some light on her own family situation and how her mum was “not at fault” and berated MFM for “reminding [her] that [her] family isn’t complete. Not by choice.”
In her post, Mellissa maintained too that she had nothing against the ground staff and was clear that the blame was to be shouldered by the MFM management.
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Comments Oh Comments
Unsurprisingly, netizens erupted in uproar and stood squarely on Mellissa’s side.
They were like-minded too in lambasting MFM for their marketing fail.
An Update
Melissa then posted an update today (6 June) morning as well as an added caption on her post.
“UPDATE: ok MFM has reached out to me. All i really want to know is how / why did the promotion mechanics (the terms and conditions) behind this campaign got approved/signed off by the management. Sorry but I am dramatic like that lol. 🤷🏻♀️
Again, I have nothing against the crew on ground for their response in such a manner because instructions probably came from the management.”
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Melissa appears to be adamant on knowing “how and why” the promotion mechanic got approved, while MFM’s response pictured above seems to suggest that it may be an individual staff error and is looking into “retraining all of [their] crew.”
At the point of writing this article, it isn’t clear if the promotion mechanic did specifically state that a father figure was a prerequisite for the promotion.
Attempts to visit MFM’s website and the promotion’s TNC were unsuccessful as the website appears to be down.
One thing’s certain though, Mellissa will not be returning to MFM any time soon.
Fish & Co, anyone?
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