Ford Bold Moves Answers My Critique and Promises to Get Ballsy

I must say, I'm a little impressed that they put what you said on their page. Now, I'd be even more impressed if they'd come over here and actually say something on your turf.

Paul, your wish is my command! :-) Just wanted to point out that it was mechanic Cliff Sword who made the "balls" comment, not Peter.

Mark is editor of Ford Bold Moves Community Buzz. I'll fix the post. Thanks. And you're always welcome here. There's no 24-hour post approval process on this blog. :>)

Well, hell. I guess I'll just have to go out and buy a Ford now! Kickass!

If the blog is new for Ford, then the review process is probably still based on corporate standards. There are likely three managers, four engineers, and two lawyers review comments before recommending (and reviewing) a response.

Seriously, I expect this attemp will get a couple of people fired for disturbing the way they do business before they realize that a *news* story on the internet has a life of about 36 hours -- and that blog responses need to faster. Two of the reviewing managers are still probably considering whether to fire someone and shut the project down, get a different video producer, or bring in a couple more lawyers to be sure no one's division suffers.

And I really am not picking on Ford Motor Company, or other corporations. While it seems that setting up a blog should be simple and required, most companies still have non-disclosure policies and policies on what employees can say or do in public (including what brand of car can park in the company lot). Policies need to adjusted (and reviewed!). Actually embracing blogging and general discussion of company matters is a big change. I personally believe the experience will benefit most companies and most customers and business partners. But change is painful, and current career and corporate goals don't change overnight.

I am sure that your comment will turn up Real Soon, Now.

My comment *did* show up the next day. It took them that long to go through the approval process, which is faster than the speed of light in terms of how fast big companies usually can move.

The basic premise of the Ford campaign is flawed because it doesn't enlist customers to help the company out of the mess it's in because it didn't listen to customers.
BL

Ford Bold Moves...
Yet another toothless PR attempt by a floundering company hoping to pick up it's business.
Ford hasn't been listening to the consumer for years and is still producing inferior products. I had a 2000 ford focus that was in the repair shop more than it was on the road and the happiest day of my life was 2 months ago when it was totaled in an accident.
I went out and bought a Toyota.
This is just another useless PR attempt to win back customers by putting forth a weakly veiled attempt at caring about what the public has to say. Look at the site! The only responses that are posted are "pro-ford". It's like they stuck a bunch of the PR people and Ford execs in a room and had them type all the "responses".
Pathetic.
Blogs are suppose to showcase viewpoints from all sides, not just the ones that fall in line with a rose colored, manufactured, version of reality. To me this is the fatal flaw of this impotent campaign.