This one belongs in the “shaking your head in disbelief” file.

Approximately 200,000 lucky Dutch families recently received a special item in the mail as part of a direct mail campaign by Unilever. Unfortunately, said item was a knife.

Yep, you read that right.

The company had sent the letters, which included a small knife with a metal blade and plastic hilt, in the first half of January to promote the use of one of its brands of margarine. – Reuters

Is it just me or would you not love to meet the genius behind this brilliant promotion? On second thought, never mind the guy who thought of it (at least he was… um… original), but what about all the marketing flacks who thought it was a phenomenal idea? I can just hear them now:

Jurgen – Guys, guys! I know! Let’s send them knives in the mail! Then when they spread the competitor’s margarine, they will think of us and feel guilty!

Gerda – Omigosh, YA! Good idea Jurgen. But… instead of butter knives, let’s make them sharp knives because, you know, you use a butter knife a couple times a day but you use a sharp knife all the time. Even better brand placement!

Hans – Smokin! Let’s DO IT!

[...] Unilever said three children had needed to visit a doctor and around 50 parents had filed a complaint.
- Reuters

Tsk, tsk. BUT WAIT… Around the same time as these knives went out, this was released:

Mike the Knife’ set to join Unilever
Michael Treschow, the Swedish turnaround specialist known as “Mike the Knife”, looks set to join Unilever as its chairman to help to revive the £18 billion consumer goods company. – UK Times Online

Mere coincidence?? Hmmm…