New car ad backfires spectacularly after wives receive 'Hi Darling' letters from 'secret admirers'

There are many ways to get publicity for a new car. This one is not recommended.

Hundreds of angry Dutch women have complained to car manufacturer Renault after receiving handwritten letters purporting to come from a unknown admirer who called them "darling", suggested meeting soon for a drink and signed themselves "lots of love, M".
Some 30,000 letters were sent out - and Renault is now writing 30,000 apologies.

The letter was in fact part of an advertising campaign for a new version of their car, the Twingo, to be launched next month in the Netherlands where it has proved a particularly big seller.

It will also go on sale in Britain next month.

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The company had targetted existing Twingo owners in the hope of persuading them to upgrade to the new model, and women who were not existing owners but whose names were obtained from mailing lists.

The letters appeared to be individually handwritten due to the high quality of printing used. Nowhere did the name Renault appear, though there were several references to the Twingo - including a random glossy photograph of the new car that apparently did not tip recipients off.

The secret admirer writes at one point: "you have a Twingo, don't you, I saw the new one and thought immediately of you". The letters started with "Hi Darling" and finished with "lots of love, M". The "secret admirer" asked how they were, wistfully remarking that it was a while since they had talked and asking "darling" had they been on holidays yet. Then towards the end, the mystery writer, who talked about holidaying in Paris and spending a lot on clothes, came to the point asking "when are we going to have a drink again; I am really curious about you". The writer said before signing off "lets talk soon again".

The Amsterdam headquarters of Renault was bombarded with angry calls from more than 500 people - mainly women, among whom the car is popular - who had received the letters in the post.

They complained their partners either suspected them of carrying on an illicit affair behind their backs or that they believed they themselves had a secret admirer wanting to meet them.

Francien Hermans, 50, from the town of Alphen aan de Rijn, was one of them. "I was confronted with my son who saw the letter; he wanted to know what I was up to in secret and who had written this letter to me," she said. Several irate wives even berated their husbands after reading the letter.

References to shopping in Paris and spending too much on clothes made them believe that the mystery M was a woman who wanted to start a tryst, or continue an existing fling with their spouses.

"We had some very angry people – couples were having a lot of discussion – some of it very heated – at home about who this letter could be from.

"Many believed it was real and there was a secret admirer and there were those who thought their partner might be having a secret affair or had this mystery admirer," said Ike den Haijer, a spokeswoman for Renault Netherlands. "The name Renault was never mentioned but it should have been, especially at the end. By starting with 'Hi Darling' and suggesting a drink soon again a intimate tone was set and that was wrong and we have apologised. "People genuinely were fooled and we are very sorry about that, the whole thing backfired." The letter's recipients only found out that the letter was from Renault by tracing the street number and postal code on the back of the envelope. A coloured photograph of a Twingo was enclosed - but that still failed to convince many that the letter was part of Renault's new marketing campaign for the soon-to-be launched new model.