Somebody's Watching Me

In March 2008, Amber Duick began receiving email messages from a criminal fugitive who identified himself as Sebastian Fowler. "Amber, mate!" read one missive. "Coming 2 Los Angeles. Gonna lay low at your place for a bit till it all blows over." Over the course of five days, he advised her of his steady movement in her direction.

A terrified Duick became convinced that the Englishman was not only on the run from the law but was also stalking her. She told friends and family about her concerns, and warned the man who occupied her former residence, where Fowler seemed to believe she still lived. "She even made her longtime boyfriend sleep with a club and mace next to the bed for protection," reports ABC News.

Duick wasn't amused when she discovered that Sebastian Fowler was a fictional character created by Saatchi & Saatchi as part of an edgy campaign for the redesigned Toyota Matrix; she is suing the automaker for $10 million.

"The campaign was well-executed, funny, creative and buzz-worthy, and the lawsuit only adds to the hype around the emails," notes Ryan Buchanan in a post at the eROI Days blog. But he wonders whether there's anything its creators could have done to prevent the emotional distress felt by Duick—who did, incidentally, opt in to the campaign.

• Since it was designed for men under 35 who hate advertising, muses Buchanan, "list segmentation could have been used to 'check in' on consumers not fitting the targeted demographic."
• Alternatively, they could have been more obvious about the campaign's purpose, he suggests, "so you know you are interacting with a brand but you are still having fun."

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