I am pissed. And here I thought that sexism in marketing was going the way of the water buffalo. But NOOOOOO.
On Saturday, my husband, David got a beautiful three dimensional piece in the mail. I could not wait to open it up—but since it was addressed to Dave, I did not open it. Instead I waited eagerly until he appeared, and watched as he opened a very beautiful invitation from American Express to become a platinum card member. The direct mail piece was a custom made box with a beautiful gross grain ribbon. And it kept unpeeling to reveal a beautiful vellum flysheet—and then the bummer—all that was in the box was a tiny 4″x4″ brochure exclaiming the virtues of being an AMEX platinum card member.
My husband’s reaction: wasteful, environmentally unsound, stupid, and why did I waste time opening a box that was essentially empty? But I can tell you that Amex dropped a chunk of change on the piece.
So then, after all that drama, I turned to open my mail, and to my surprise, there was my invitation to become a platinum member. But the difference—mine was in a plain No. 10 envelope. And the brochure was standard fare. And I thought—how totally stupid of American Express.
Why?
Well for one—we have a joint account. Did they not think I would see his elaborate invitation as compared to my run of the mill DM piece?
Two, did they make an assumption on who was the big breadwinner and big spender in our house—the male? Wrong wrong wrong.
Three—did they not understand that as a woman I would feel somewhat slighted that my male partner got the uppercrust invitation and that I got second class citizen treatment, again?
Oh I am sure that they have tested this package. But they got it all wrong… Neither of us think it is wise to pay an additional fee for the privilege of having a grey colored card. And, both invitations ended up in our recycling bag.