So What Has Hoover Been Doing Lately to Save the Soaps?

[Max]

I have to hand it to Brian Kirkendall, the VP of Marketing at Hoover. He saw just how much outrage there was at the AMC/OLTL cancellations, and believed that by pretending to care about the soaps--less than a week after these cancellations were announced--many viewers would be greatful to Hoover. Indeed, after Hoover made its announcement that it would pull its ads from ABC, it added thousands of new "friends" to its Facebook page; many of these people said they went out and purchased a Hoover product out of gratitude.

At the time Hoover made its decision, it seemed that most soap fans had nothing but praise for Hoover for being so "caring." (If you don't believe this, I suggest you go back and comb through the AMC/OLTL cancellation thread.) A small minority, however, realized that what Mr. Kirkendall was doing was nothing more than a bulls#it marketing gimmick: after all, if Hoover really cared about "saving the soaps," they would have boycotted CBS after GL and ATWT were cancelled. (Of course, no such boycott happened because the P&G soap cancellations got a "ho-hum" reaction from the public.)

Now that months have passed and the intial uproar died down, it appears as if Hoover hasn't made a peep about saving the soaps. (A part of me wonders if Hoover even mailed ABC all of the save AMC/OLTL letters Hoover collected, as Mr. Kirkendall said it would.) Again, if saving the soaps were really the objective at Hoover, then the company would have been present at the save AMC/OLTL rallies that have since taken place. The saddest part about this whole Hoover episode is that it shows (1) how others are willing to take advantage of the grief of others and (2) just how gullible people in our society really are.

P.S. If one needs further evidence of the level of ethics at Hoover, consider that a decision was made about four years ago to ship manufacturing jobs from the Canton, Ohio area to Mexico in order to save money. (This decision came after Hoover got new corporate ownership.) Although I have always preferred Hoover vacuums to their competitors, I will no longer buy from them as a result of the way they do business.

[Antoyne]

It's business.

[Max]

Technically, this is true. However, taking advantage of the grief of others is a pretty low way of doing business.

Also, coming from many soap fans, the above response is total hypocrisy (My apologies to you Antoyne, as I have no idea on your views on this matter. Please note that the followng diatribe is not necessarily directed towards you.): so it's "just business" when Hoover is doing what it is doing, but it is not "just business" when ABC cancels AMC and OLTL and replaces them with cheap talk shows. The double standard is incredible: there is little, if any, anger at Hoover, but so many soap fans consider it to be a moral outrage on ABC's part for making a business decision.

At least ABC--unlike Hoover--is replacing American jobs with American jobs.

[dragonflies]

Did anyone ever expect they would? It was OBVIOUS they were riding the wave of ABC's cancelling the shows.

[Scotty]

My thoughts exactly...and I don't know what all people were expecting them to do anyhow...

[CCCapwell]

Max, please answer this for me, is the issue for you only because the P&G soaps never received Hoover's support? I remember when it happened some were very upset that no one really cared that GL and ATWT got cancelled, well I'm sorry if you are a fan of the P&G soaps but just because AMC and OLTL had a more vocal response from fan outrage is no reason to slam Hoover for reacting the way they did. When the news broke I asked on this message board: Did Hoover ever buy ad time on the P&G soaps? Because if the answer is no, then you really have nothing to complain about since why on earth would Hoover react at all to P&G soap cancelations if they never aired ads on those soaps. And if they did buy ads, the reason why they didn't respond in the same manner is due to the fact there was no fan reaction to GL and ATWT's cancelations. I don't recall Hoover ever claiming they were trying to save the soap genre, they were simply reacting to a very vocal fan base of two popular soaps, sorry if the fan bases of GL and ATWT weren't as vocal, but that is their fault, not Hoover's!

[juniorz1]

+1

Hoover pulled their ads and boycotted. NO OTHER COMPANY DID THAT!

Was it smart business? Yes.

However, did their pulling ads from ABCD cause ABC to lose money? Absolutely.

So they hit em where it hurts and I say good for them, regardless of why they did it, they did it! They did something. What other company can we soap fans say that about?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but weren't the sponsors for the P&G shows mostly.......wait for it............................P&G products?

[juniorz1]

And frankly, what more would you suggest Hoover do as a company to save the soaps? Attend a Save Our Soaps rally? Buy their own network and hold ABC at gunpoint forcing them to sell AMC & OLTL (since that seems to be the only way they're willing to let them air somewhere else at this point)?

Seriously.

I swear, with some soap fans, it's like you're damned if you do and you're damned if you don't.....

[Soapsuds]

I remember everyone saying that more were going to boycott....lmao.....none of that happen.

ABC is probably laughing all the way to the back while Hoover pulling out makes them look pathetic with greed only in their minds...lol

[Max]

To be completely honest, I am upset that Hoover did nothing in support of the P&G soaps. (After all, in their press release, Hoover said the soap genre itself was what was important and worth saving, as opposed to AMC & OLTL in particular.) However, this is not the only issue, nor is it the main issue. The main issue--as I stated before--is that Hoover exploited the grief of soap fans in an effort to gain more business. (Now, if Hoover did a network boycott for one of the P&G soaps, I probably wouldn't be as upset as I am now. Yet, I would still point out that this move is a cheap marketing gimmick, and would hopefully not be stupid enough to then go out and buy one of their products.)

Actually, ABC almost certainly lost no money, since they just replaced a Hoover ad with another ad (since nobody else boycotted ABC). Like Soapsuds said above "ABC is probably laughing all the way to the bank while Hoover pulling out makes them look pathetic with greed only in their minds."

I was being sarcastic when I asked if there was anyting that Hoover was doing lately to save the soaps. Obviously, it is out of Hoover's powever to keep AMC or OLTL on the air. The whole point of this thread was to point out the fact that nobody (other than myself) is even bothering to hold Hoover's feet to the fire when it comes to being a responsible corporate citizen (while these same people are up in amrs at Disney for their lack of corporate responsibility after they cancelled "quality" soap operas for "cheap" talk shows). This is a point that I feel is well worth discussing, given that so many soap viewers lauded Hoover as the soap genre's savior and then were dumb enough to go out and buy one of their products (or pledge future loyalty to the company).

[Michael]

I guess I'm not sure what Hoover COULD have done, aside from pulling their advertising from ABC Daytime. Aren't Hoover's "business ethics" (which are pretty much in line with every corporation) almost an entirely different subject than whatever they were supposed to do to "save the soaps"?

[marceline]

Indeed. And you're welcome.

That said, it was a BRILLIANT P.R. move. I can't even imagine the dollar value of the news coverage they got plus the all the new Facebook friends that willing added themselves to their database AND proceeded to talk Hoover up to family and friends. That is the kind of promotion even global companies would kick puppies for.

According to Jezebel, Hoover's whole ABC ad buy was $250,000. That won't even get you an apartment in a lot of cities.

Really? Because I think the saddest part of all this is that the same soap fans whose willing ignorance helped destroy the genre are still blaming Hoover and Oprah for the fact that these shows selected themselves out of existence by catering to them.

The funny thing is that I actually do need to buy a vacuum. Part of me doesn't want to reward Hoover for catering to soap fan provincialism yet the other part of me wants to reward them for exploiting those same fans. Oh the dilemma!

[Max]

Marceline, you are so funny!

Seriously, thank you for backing me up on this. I really appreciate it.

[juniorz1]

Once again, Hoover is not a P&G product and the vast majority of P&G's advertisers are P&G products. You can't pull advertising from shows you're not advertising on in the first place.

To what bank? So ABC found someone else to advertise with them- DUH! But at least HOOVER is no longer advertising on ABC and probably advertising somewhere else. Therefore, every ad dollar that Hoover once spent at ABC is going to another network, one of their competitors. No matter which way you cut it, ABC did indeed lose something.

Sorry, but once again, what other company pulled their commercials from ABC?

NOBODY!

Exactly.

I don't understand the point that you're trying to make at all. WHO CARES if Hoover pulled their advertising from ABC to gain some publicity and maybe some new consumers? No other company thought to do it, no other company's CEO spoke out in defense of the soaps, no other company did jack squat.

Hoover did.

I don't understand why you're complaining. With all of the actual underhanded sh!t that goes down in the corporate world, I don't feel that Hoover pulling their ads from ABC in reaction to the cancellations of AMC & OLTL is underhanded at all. Whether they did it for publicity or not.

You're failing to see the flip side of the coin- Hoover pulling their ads ALSO gave AMC & OLTL some publicity, showed the public that there are people out there besides nutty soap fans with poster board and megaphones in NYC who give a sh!t that 2 beloved soaps were cancelled, AND it gave ABC more bad publicity.

I continue to fail to see where the harm is in any of that!?!

[Max]

Juniorz1, I feel like I've already explained to death the point I'm trying to make: Hoover said they were pulling their ads from ABC because they care about saving the soaps. However, it should be obvious to anyone that they don't give a rat's a$$ about the genre or its fans; rather, the company is exploiting their grief for profit. (For instance, if Hoover really cared about saving the soaps, then why hasn't the company since sponsored any "save our soaps" rallies?) Thus, I am upset because Hoover blatently lied about its motivation behind pulling its ads from ABC.

Because soap fans are mad as hell at ABC right now, I can understand why these fans at first might want to be thankful for another corproation that comes out and embarasses ABC. However, if these fans actually stop and think about what is really going on, they should realize that Hoover is just exploiting them. (Sadly, some people are not smart enough to realize this.)

For somebody who hates ABC to go around and swear loyalty to Hoover is evidence of a very flawed logical process; such a person simply thinks as follows: "the enemy of my enemy is my friend." Although this goes well beyond a discussion of soap operas, this flawed thought process is how the United States came to support Saddam Hussein (when we were fighting Iran) in the 1980's.