Around the World via the Poles
By Rocky Thompson on April 28th, 2011
A man named Ray Chaplin hopes to circumnavigate the globe under human power. Instead of going along the equator and sticking to relatively consistent weather, he’ll try to cut across the globe from top to bottom going through the North and South Poles. He’ll paddle, bike, ski or, well, walk or swim, I guess. How long will this take? He’s saying it’ll be over in 80 weeks. The SHOVA 360 expedition kicks off this August.
Tags: expeditions
Got an e-mail from your site yesterday with the headline “Mother Nature Hates You, Deal with it.” With the number of people who died in multiple tornadoes all across the south this was the most tasteless thing I have ever seen. I will never shop at your site again neither should anyone else. If you have any decency as human beings you will post an apology prominently on your homepage for a month. No matter how insincere it will likely be. You are horrible people who know no shame.
I understand the concern over the connection to the awful storms this week, but suffering through three hurricanes over the last five years on the gulf coast (no fuel, no electricity for weeks, house damage, worse damage all around you), I take no offense of the marketing tag line. You’re a high adventure store; I expect to see a play on “mother nature” in your marketing. If the said offensive slogan was dreamed up today, then maybe it was bad timing. But it’s not insensitive.
Seriously? you must be a moron. Backcountry wrote an advertising email that had absolutely nothing to do with those tornadoes. It was just bad timing and a pure accident. I would assume the email was written before the tornadoes happened so you know they are not even related. Grow up stop being a big baby and go on with your life. I live in the south and am not the least bit offended and neither should you be for an accident that Backcountry.com has already apologized for.
There was an apology email sent out before 3 pm today. Obviously it wasn’t intentional. It was terrible timing, but not intentional.
I can understand having the copy for the email written two weeks ago and then forgetting to stop the email before it went out during the tornado disaster. Unlike the poster above, I find it refreshing that you people immediately published an apology. Unlike the commenter above, I will continue shopping at your establishment.
I received an email from backcountry.com this morning apologizing for the error in judgment. It was probably one of the most well-written, genuine sounding emails I’ve ever received from any company. Kudos to backcountry.com for recognizing an error and being proactive about addressing it. Bottom line is that mistakes happen - avoidable or not - and, although they didn’t intend anything ill, they recognized that, in light of recent events, it was extremely insensitive.
Apologies were already sent Tim, it was simply bad timing and was meant as marketing that was already in motion before those tragic events took place. Backcountry was and is very sincere about their apology and you are being a terribly cynical if you really believe they were trying to capitalize on what happened.
Received in my e-mail (didn’t even notice the offending message, actually)
“Dear Scott,
We messed up. Yesterday, as the people of Alabama dealt with the devastating aftermath of an intensely damaging and life-taking tornado, we neglected to put a stop to the distribution of an email with the header: “Mother Nature hates you. Deal with it.” This was extremely insensitive and offensive, and we are so sorry.
Please accept our sincerest apologies for this mistake. What was intended to be witty marketing copy may have been when we wrote these words two weeks ago, but in light of current events and the suffering of people affected by Mother Nature’s wrath, it is not only not witty, it is completely unacceptable.
We at Backcountry.com send our deepest condolences to the families of those who lost their lives and to everyone now faced with rebuilding their homes and their communities. And again, we extend our sincerest apologies for our lack of foresight and our complete insensitivity in sending yesterday’s email.
Sincerely,
Jill Layfield
CEO
Backcountry.com”
The poor guy trying to walk around the world via the poles is going to be really disappointed when he finds this blog post and reads all the comments.
Oh Tim… do you really think any company would do something like this intentionally? You should really be thankful if a tag line on an email is the most insensitive thing you have ever seen. lol So just relax man it was just a mistake.
To get this back on topic, I hope this guy makes it. It’s definitely much more arduous of an undertaking than doing a circumnavigation around the equator. Should see some crazy stuff on this expedition.
As an occasional commenter who is also named Tim, I just wanted to say that I gave Backcountry the benefit of the doubt. Tim(1)’s kneejerk reactionism is all well and good, though, and will likely serve him will on his future pursuits. May we wish him all the best.