AOL is piggybacking off of White House Obama/Biden Military Fluff Campaign

This is an email I got from AOL social media marketing. My first thought was, ‘WOW! AOL contacted me?’, slightly impressed. However, I’ve never been a huge fan of AOL. At this time I’m not bothering to explain this. 


Also what I am NOT a fan of is a company that says they want to donate for a good cause, but can only do so if so many people participate? What a crock of shit!! You either want to do the right thing and help, or you don’t. You don’t need tweets, facebook sharing, or any other source of free advertising to share your wealth. To me, all this says is that these companies are only first worried about their own name and SEO being boosted.


LAME!!!! You want to be boosted? Do the right thing! Donate. Help. Support. Then I will sing your praises and give you that little boost. 


Ok, enough ranting. Time for the email [to which I did give the person contacting me the courtesy of removing their name/email]
Enjoy!
I’ll be interested to hear your thoughts…
[and yes I am completely aware that this topic/post may be slightly controversial, however I have no fear of posting such articles]

On Wed, Apr 13, 2011 at 10:26 AM, H**, C** wrote:

C**,

Sadly, from what I can see it seems that a decent portion of the military families and community does not hold a lot of stock in Michelle Obama and Jill Biden and feels that they are campaigning empty smiles and false promises. I wish I, personally, could have more faith in what they are peddling but I see beyond the political smoke screen and am not in the least bit fooled. I’m getting a lot of the same feedback from many other military families. The white house and congress, as usual, only care about themselves and unless they are using the military to aid in current global projects their only other concern about us is in using us as their pawns in the self-fulfilling games. We are tired of it.

Now, while I do appreciate the fact that AOL is wanting show their appreciation to our military while piggybacking of the Michelle/Jill campaign, I must admit I am a bit disappointing that I haven’t seen any major reach out to the military from your corporation in the last 10 years. After all, our men and woman of the armed services have been fighting this war for that long and I’m saddened to say that I have seen an overall decrease in compassion and support, especially from major corporations such as AOL who could be doing so much more than what they are, including this current effort. If AOL wanted to help our military and veterans, they would just do it without the concern of boosting their name through a ‘spreading the word’ promotion. Did you see Bob Barker use social media and gimmicks when he donated $2 MILLION DOLLARS to the Semper Fi Fund? No. He handed over a check with absolutely NO STRINGS ATTACHED. I’m sorry, but to me the fact that AOL needs to piggyback off of the White House and their campaign that a good portion of military families have very little faith in only lowers my opinion of AOL. [which was never very high to begin with] All I see here is that you are hiding behind the real agenda of USING the Military to help promote your own name and boost your own ratings.

Bottom line? If you really want to make an impact among military families you would first make a donation to Hire Heroes USA, and then let the media and those of us impressed by your efforts spread the word of your actions. After all, actions speak much louder than words and gimmick filled campaigns and when we see the actions we are more than happy to give them praises and ‘spread the word’.

Thanks again for contacting me!
Best Wishes from a very dedicated and fully supportive USMC Wife who refuses to let fluff and gimmicks sway her values and standards,
Laura
Semper Fi Momma