There could be worse examples out there, and we’ve received dozens of nominees from political operatives across Florida, but House District 4 candidate Jeff Hinkle is our front-runner so far. The Republican from Okaloosa County may be a fine candidate, but this mailer doesn’t do him justice, and comes up short in so many ways:
Before we dive in, please note that we’re not picking on Hinkle himself, but on the overall quality of this particular mail piece, which, unfortunately does not reflect well on the candidate.
Where to start?
How about the glaring typo which even most elementary school kids will pick up on. We’ll let you find it yourself. Now, we’re no strangers to typos here at The Capitolist, after all, like Hinkle’s political mail house, we crank out content quickly and often without the luxury of getting more than one or two proof-reads before sending it out to tens of thousands of potential readers. With that in mind, we can look past a fat-fingered mistake like this one.
But then, there’s the photo of Hinkle, which looks like a hastily constructed backdrop of whatever Hinkle and his campaign team could scrape together. At best, it looks artificial. At worst, well…the person who forwarded the mailer to us included this quote:
“Jeff Hinkle may be an entrepreneur and a businessman, but someone should check his financial disclosure, because there’s some wood paneling in that photo that screams he’s struggling at both.”
If that’s too nitpicky, how about the issue of Hinkle’s apparent ego, so excessive that it’s dripping from the mailer, like too much barbecue sauce slathered on a spare rib and now it’s running down your hands, making you want to toss the whole mess in the trash and wipe your hands before you get any on your shirt. Should we care that Hinkle drives a race car? Or that he’s a pilot? The whole thing reminds us of one of those “When I grow up, I want to be…” posters. You know, the ones hanging in Kindergarten classrooms and little boys’ bedrooms all over America.
Look familiar? The similarities to Hinkle’s mailer are striking, right down to the font, colors and even the words themselves.
If only Hinkle’s direct mail consultant could have used the original artwork to spell check the mailer.
Got more examples of really bad direct mail? Send them to us for a thorough review!