BusinessWeek. Iridium Hits Flak in the Balkans
Iridium, the satellite-phone outfit, may have missed another connection. First,
journalists using its expensive handsets in Yugoslav war zones complained that the
phones, advertised to work anywhere in the world, didn't. Then, in April, Iridium's
CEO abruptly quit in the midst of financial troubles.
Now, Iridium is being accused of exploiting fleeing Kosovars to sell phones. A
May 4 ad in the The Wall Street Journal shows refugees in Macedonia using
$2,300 Iridium phones and proclaims that ''thousands of refugees know that
Iridium works.'' The ad notes that refugees and others in the Balkans have made
over 30,000 calls.
The Kosovars appreciate the phones, but not the ad. ''Their primary purpose in
this ad is not showing that they are helping refugees. It's more like advertising the
phone,'' says Ardijan Hasangjekaj, a coordinator at the New York-based Kosova
Relief Fund. Nor does the ad address the phones' reliability, says Wharton School
marketing professor David Schmittlein. That was the ad's intent, says the
company.
Iridium says that 100 phones were donated at the request of relief agencies. That
help, says Iridium, was not a marketing ploy.
By Joseph Weber |
