Copy of my open letter to the CEO of Energizer worldwide (sent Sunday, 17th of April 2011, 8:28pm Malaysian Time)

 

Sent to: ward.klein@energizer.com (CEO Energizer)

CC: customercare@energizer.com, local newspaper (Star)

 

Subject: Boycott Energizer Night Race Malaysia - events last night

 

Dear Ward,

my name is Andreas West, I'm the founder of the "Boycott Energizer Night Race"
fan page and group on Facebook. Since last nights pitiful events under your
companies name I've founded the above group and have already 2000 people joining
me to express the utmost dissatisfaction and anger with the organization of
yesterday Energizer Night Race 2011 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

I do hope that you're sincerely interested into fixing this damage to your
worldwide brand, already people in that Facebook page are calling to avoid
buying ANY Energizer products!

Among the most urgent requests are:

- Getting everybody who finished his certificate and medal
- A proper investigation into the events, the responsible people and taking some
severe actions against those that have full responsibility and take ownership of
these events
- a proper and sincere public excuse probably coming from yourself, taking full
responsibility of this event

Luckily we don't have any reports of casualties so far, but people already
confirmed that some fainted in the so called "Tunnel of Death" that was used by
your organizers to push 10000 runners plus their family and friends through a
small, claustophobic, underground tunnel with no air condition that included
some stairs and an about 3 meters wide tunnel. Luckily no panic happened and all
behaved quite well otherwise we would now count dead bodies.

Secondly there was only one water station provided on the 5.5km long course of
the Sepang F1 racetrack, leaving many of the runners become thirsty and
dehydrated which is not only a very unhealthy condition but could become also
life threatening in 30 degrees celsius heat conditions (at night)! There was no
water or any other drink supplied when runners finished the event, only 1
medical tent was built up outside the whole running side.

Probably the worst behavior was reported from organizer's staff throwing
finisher bags at the people that waited for more than 1 hour to get their bags,
giving the impression that all those brave men and women who trained so long and
hard for this running event and then fought through this extra tough conditions
thanks to your local people are just beggars!

I'd like to invite you to take a look at the comments which are piling up into
the thousands already to get a picture of what happened last night and what
leads to so many brand and A&P money of yours destroyed now. Here's the link to
our Facebook page which also has links to videos and photos as further evidence:

https://www.facebook.com/BoycottEnergizerNightRace

https://www.facebook.com/BoycottEnergizerNightRace#!/home.php?sk=group_179523118766311

Your local Energizer Malaysia people are trying to silent me and probably some
others by reporting us to Facebook and blocking us, but as I said in the forum
this is only fueling our anger even more. I'll continue to report your people's
failure via my Twitter account and on Facebook, as well as newspaper and God
knows what else I can find.

We want to see some actions, not just words and empty promises. I'll copy some
local newspaper on this email and will look forward to your response and even
more important, your actions!

Regards,

Andreas West
Kuala Lumpur