It’s Friday and it’s been raining all week, so I’m going to vent for a minute.

Earlier this week, FedEx launched an attack campaign against UPS, claiming that the company is seeking a federal bailout. While UPS is not seeking what we have come to define as a bailout (money from the government), they are seeking revised legislation that would:
a) eliminate a piece of legislation that currently allows FedEx to operate under a unique set of rules that supposedly give FedEx a competitive advantage over UPS, and
b) subsequently, make it easier for FedEx employees to unionize — something FedEx definitely does not want

I have a few beefs with FedEx on this one:

1) As the Times duly noted, this is a dubious use of the term “bailout”.

2) There doesn’t seem to be a clearly desired response. One of the tabs on their website, BrownBailout.com, directs users to write to their legislators. But this seems to be an afterthought, as that point has no other presence on the homepage. If FedEx would just rather I dislike UPS a bit more because of some esoteric lobbying/legislation, then they’ve clearly overestimated how much I care about business law.

3) How does this affect me, the consumer? If FedEx thinks this law will negatively impact their performance, they should say so. If FedEx thinks this will force them to charge higher rates, they should say so. Somehow, someway, make it real for me.

Ultimately, it seems like FedEx eschewed any hope for a clear strategy in order to rush ahead with a clever website name and silly spoof of the whiteboard ads.