HP Letter

[bobquasit]

Here's the email I just sent to Mark Hurd, Chairman, CEO, and President of Hewlett-Packard:

Sir,

I recently read an ABC Radio Network memo listing HP as refusing to have any advertising run during broadcasts of Air America Radio programming. I don't know why this decision was made, nor do I question the right of the HP corporation to make that decision.

However, as a result of that HP policy, I too have made a decision: I will no longer purchase any HP products. As it happens I do own an HP printer, and will replace it with a non-HP printer at the first opportunity. Likewise, I will scrupulously avoid HP products in the future, and have recommended the same personal policy to my friends, family, and in the online communities that I participate in.

Decisions have consequences.

If I get any response, I'll post it here.

Comments

[klyfix.livejournal.com]

Something I'm wondering about, after doing a Google to see if maybe the boycott thing was an Urban Legend, is if those advertisers have ads on, well, conservative talk shows.

What I saw in some Google stuff was that the companies didn't want to be connected to stuff that was "contraversial." I can see a company electing to not have ads on political shows.

The question, of course, is if those companies advertise on Limbaugh or O'Rielly or whatever. If they do, well, then there is a problem.

[ethesis.livejournal.com]

Those advertisers avoid Limbaugh like the plague as well, for good reason.

They want to avoid polarizing advertisements. Advertise on one or the other and you are toast with everyone else.

[klyfix.livejournal.com]

That's more or less what I'm thinking; if you advertise on a program that's clearly taking a side you're likely to alienate those who don't agree with that position. The trick, I suppose, is what fits that bill. Some programs might well be seen as taking a side by some but not by others; the producers may portray a program as not taking a side when it may sure seem like it is.