I’m in marketing also...this is really terrible on ALL fronts.
First, you have the neighbors names being mentioned so the recipient’s very first thought will be that their name is appearing on other people’s mailers.
Then, we have the ridiculous idea of sending “grades” to adults.
Finally, the entire design of the thing is hideous.
I’m sure you are like me...most things I see make me go “meh”...a few immediately grab my attention and I think “wonder who did that, it’s great!” Then, there’s this...OMG.
Just like you I study marketing campaigns all the time. It’s why I can’t comprehend why anyone would think this horrible tactic would make anyone enthusiastic or even sympathetic to the candidate circulating it. The message is like that old William Castle potboiler: “I saw what you did, and I know who you are.” Not exactly an “I Like Ike”-style message. It’s just plain horribly bad, on every level. Hope you saw the post with the photo of the envelope. It was mind-numbingly bad before you even opened it!
Someone who would do this, these shame mailers with neighbors names and a F for voting history, I wouldn’t want to be elected to anything. It is repulsive, I doubt I can support Cruz for anything now. I actually kind of hope somehow Cruz didn’t know, that he wasn’t informed of these mailers...but then that brings in to question Cruz’s ability to lead. It is a head shaker.
This is bad for a person like Ted because he claims he is the guy against NSA mass data collection and he is pro privacy.
Then he uses this tactic to publically shame people into voting for him.
If Ted can’t see the hypocrisy in that, well, nobody can help him.