[crazygringo]

> "The company was apparently planning to make the announcement at the end of April but accidentally published a press release about the name change early Monday afternoon, which was first spotted by CNBC before it was taken down. The proximity of the name change to April Fool’s Day initially raised suspicions that it was just a joke. But VW insists that it’s a real thing, so here we are."

Sounds to me like a publicity stunt -- they "accidentally published" a press release a month early? Sorry, that doesn't happen.

Seems like trying to generate buzz on social media, then they'll quietly "decide" not to change the name after all, but people associating VW with electric cars more so -- mission accomplished.

[__david__]

You find it that hard to believe that someone typed the wrong date into a CMS?

[sib]

No, but I find it very hard to believe that a gigantic company had a press release finalized and sitting in a CMS a month in advance, just waiting for time to pass.

(Source: have worked in 3 large public companies and seen how these things come down to the wire with approvals from PR, Marketing, IR, Legal, Country Leadership, Corporate, etc...)

[crazygringo]

Exactly.

If I had a dollar for every press release at every public company that was written and finalized a month in advance...

...I'm pretty sure I'd have zero dollars.

[bellyfullofbac]

Huh, why does the name change have to be announced 2-3 days before in your world? They would need to send new stationery and signage to dealers, so the chatter would start in the coming week or 2 anyway... Why not pre-empt that with a press release.

[crazygringo]

I didn't say anything like that, where did you get "2-3 days" from or "signage"?

VW themselves said they didn't plan to put out the press release for a month. They didn't say anything about the timing of "stationery or signage".

Did you mean to reply to a different comment...?