EXPLOSIVE PROMOTIONS

Pins & Needles A Los Angeles law firm pulled the plug on a “dimensional” mailing because recipients were afraid to pull the pin on its content – a paperweight that looked an awful lot like a hand grenade.

In September, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Oliver & Hedges LLP mailed more than 600 grenade-shaped paperweights to Silicon Valley businesses the law firm hoped to engage as clients.

According to reports, the grenades came in a brown cardboard box. An enclosed note bore the name “Quinn Emanuel” and told readers that business was war and that firms needed to arm themselves.

But the original concept – that representation by the company was like having a warrior on your side – went awry. This was partly because the note never mentioned that the firm was opening an office in the San Francisco area. Shortly after the initial mailing, Quinn Emanuel began hearing about panicked recipients.

According to reports, San Jose, CA-based e-delivery firm Deliverex alerted the bomb squad when it received the mailing, as did a Sunnyvale, CA recycling plant, which came across one of the grenades that had apparently been thrown away by an unimpressed target.

What may have added to Deliverex’s concern was the fact that it had recently completed a round of funding from Israeli venture capital firm BRM Group.

Although mailing such items falls into a gray legal area, the U.S. Postal Service declined to take action against the firm. Quinn Emanuel had received approval from a postal inspector before the initial mailing.

As soon as complaints began, the law firm immediately alerted potential recipients that the package was on its way.

Then Quinn Emanuel fired the marketing company that coordinated the mailing.