“He’s very, very unhappy.”
Here’s a perfect example of the power of the written word in advertising: Jane Hambleton’s splashy classified ad to sell her son’s car worked so well that now everyone knows she caught him with liquor in his car and sold it as punishment.
The ad said,
“Totally uncool parents who obviously don’t love teenage son, selling his car. Only driven for 3 weeks before snoopy mom who needs to get a life found booze under front seat. $3,700/offer. Call meanest mom on the planet.”
Hambleton told Good Morning America that she knew the ad would have to be different to stand out from the slew of other car classifieds. She told the Des Moines Register that she didn’t want people to think she was selling it because anything was wrong. We all know she really did it to show her son that she’s not to be messed with.
“The ad cost a fortune, but you know what? I’m telling people what happened here. I’m not just going to put the car for resale when there’s nothing wrong with it, except the driver made a dumb decision,” Hambleton said.
Steven Hambleton, a freshman business major at Briar Cliff University in Sioux City, obviously was not one of the callers. And he didn’t feel much like talking when contacted Tuesday.
“I don’t think you can print” his response to the ad, his mother said. “He’s very, very unhappy.”
Oh well, he got to appear on Good Morning America. That’s like YouTube for boomers.
“‘Meanest mom on the planet’ sells son’s car — after finding booze in it” [Des Moines Register]
RELATED
“‘Mean Mom’ Gives Son Public Lesson on Drinking” [ABC] (includes video interview)
“‘Mean Mom’ Sells Son’s Car After Misdeed” [Associated Press]
(Photo: Good Morning America)
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Personally, I think this Mom can add “marketing genius” to her resume. It was a shrewd move and since she’s the PARENT, she was well within her right to reprimand her kid for violating the terms of the contract. If the kid gets humiliated in the process, then so be it. He has no one to blame but himself – it’s not like he didn’t know the rules beforehand. Better he endure a little humiliation than a manslaughter trial or DUI (though he claims he was merely hiding the bottle for a friend, anyone who can drive a car should know that a bottle of booze rolling around under the driver’s seat can still land you a stint in the clink). It’s unfortunate that, judging from a few of the commenters’ criticism of Mom, teaching your children valuable lessons and imparting crucial knowledge about the consequences of their actions has somehow become politically incorrect. Team Mom!
@hypebreaker:
There are plenty of ways that she could have “imparted crucial knowledge about the consequences of his actions” without needlessly humiliating him.
Depending on how soon this incident gets the guy in question (he’s not a kid. he’s 19. he’s a legal adult) moved out, the bitterness over this could stay with him for a long time. The mom just probably ruined her relationship with her son permanently in order to make a point.
Yeah. Go mom, indeed.
@The Great TK:
Spoken like a true enabler…
Shame and humiliation that result as consequences to illegal or questionable behavior are effective deterrents to future bad behavior (unless, of course, you are Paris Hilton).
Was it “needless” in this case? Don’t think so.
See, there’s this little concept called “personal responsibility” and while it’s on the verge of extinction in our current culture, this Mom thought her dependent son needed to take some. Somehow, I doubt very much that her kid (and yes, regardless of his age or legal status, he is still her kid) is so emotionally challenged that he won’t mature beyond holding a grudge against his Mom for making what was clearly an important, valid and much-needed point.
@darkened:
How silly, many people DON’T use drugs – alcoholic or not. Their is no “responsible” use for most of this stuff. It isn’t something your body needs, and you can live w/o it – I have for 35 years. Never tried, never wanted to – and imagine the 1000s of $$s I’ve saved over the years, and will continue to save.
This is intelligent as “they are going to have sex at the age of 10, we need to make it safe and give the condoms – the most safe and effective way to do anything.” And they keep saying that as teenage pregnancy rises, teenage rape rises, etc, etc…
@misslisa: things have changed a lot since 1920 though.
@ericole: given your comment, it is best that you don’t use anything mind altering. linear thinking means you are a republican of course.
@ericole:
Teenage pregnancy has only risen since the government started only providing funds for abstinence-only sex ed programs.
Funny how that works.
Love hurts, eh?
If I catch my kids being braindead like that, they’d be losing more than their daddy-bought-me-this car. This kid got off lucky!