Van Noy
English 307
Spring Semester 2002

Assignment Three

This assignment is supposed to be an especially difficult persuasive situation, to be performed collaboratively.

As you may remember from some of our research, shortly after the Exxon Valdez spill, a number of environmental groups, disc jockeys, and talk show hosts around the country began a campaign urging Exxon customers to cut up their credit cards and return them to Exxon. The campaign was called "Cut Up Your Exxon Credit Card." By May 14, 1989, Exxon had received approximately 18,000 cut-up credit cards from people canceling their accounts.

Things got even worse in July of 1989. Otto Harrison, Exxon’s Valdez general manager, distributed an internal memo stating that 1) Exxon alone would decide when it would cease clean-up operations; 2) For safety reasons, all clean-up operations would cease during the winter months; and 3) No commitment would be made for future action other than a survey of the shore in the spring of 1990. This memo was leaked to the media, drawing another harsh round of criticism against Exxon. By October, 1989, Exxon had received approximately 40,000 cut-up credit cards.

You work in the Marketing Department at Exxon. Your boss, the Director of Marketing, has instructed you to write a letter to all the customers who cancelled their accounts in response to the "Cut Up Your Exxon Credit Card" campaign. Your goal is to persuade these former customers to re-open their credit accounts with Exxon and, by implication, to start patronizing Exxon gas stations again. From the letters that accompanied the cut-up cards, you know that these customers gave a variety of reasons for closing their accounts:

• Some blamed Exxon for inadequate prevention of the spill (they suggested the tanker could have been sturdier, etc.).
• Others thought Exxon had handled the containment and cleanup poorly.
• Many blamed Exxon for hiring Hazelwood, a man with a known drinking problem (the perception of many members of the public was that Hazelwood’s drinking was primarily responsible for the spill) to captain the tanker.
• Others just thought Exxon had displayed an arrogant, uncaring attitude throughout the process.