Hey Mr. President, mind if I use you to plug my product?

The "Open Letter to the President" seems to be the new way to market just about anything. Recently Pedigree took advantage of President Obama's announcement that his girls were getting a dog to promote the idea of adopting a shelter (i.e. mixed breed) dog. A perfect tie-in to both the timing of his remarks and the President's own heritage.

Somewhat less effective is Sealy jumping on the bandwagon several weeks later to initiate the idea of getting less, but more "quality" sleep (something the Prez, like most Americans, presumably need). Unfortunately, not only does the idea feel forced, I suspect the ad agency for Sealy saw the Pedigree letter and said "Hey, let's do something like that!"

Pure rip-off or simply "Best Practices?" You be the judge.