Free People Accidentally Celebrates Everyone's Birthdays

While even the brands I want to hear from tend to abuse their privileges with my email address, it's good to see a few out there who notice the right opportunities and seize (or, blast) them.

A colleague forwarded an email she received from Free People last week. Apparently the company recently sent out a Happy-Birthday-here's-a-discount-coupon email--but not just to customers who were celebrating their birthdays. Not sure if this went to the whole database, but my colleague got one and she's not blowing out candles any time soon. The email she received last week was an apology about the company's goof.

Two reasons to love Free People's response:

1) It confessed their mistake up front, and did it in an authentic, human way.

2) It encouraged the recipient to use the discount anyway, and assured them they'd still get one on their actual birthday.

For a brand that just got caught doing something that was the opposite of personal, I call this a rewarding recovery.