Mother Nature resists automotive sponsorship — with a vengeance

Mark sent me a sad story of PR gone horribly wrong.

In Germany, Mini Deutschland paid the Institute for Meteorology at the Free University in Berlin the standard €199 "Adopt-a-Vortex" fee to have in incoming cold front named "Cooper". The agency, Sassenbach, had said they wanted a wind- and weather-proof idea" to promote the soft top Mini Roadster. 

I assume this was supposed to be ironic. But the real (and very sad) irony began when Cooper started killing people:

Also note unfortunate Expedia headline.

BBC reports:

"In a statement, the carmaker said it could not influence exactly when names for weather fronts would be used, or what a weather system would do. 

It said it deeply regretted that the weather front had taken on 'catastrophic proportions' and claimed so many lives."

In other news, Mother Nature hates cars.