One OppenheimerFunds wholesaler learned last week that creative marketing can sometimes be too creative.

The unnamed wholesaler mailed financial reps in his region a special marketing cure for "stock market headaches." Rather than curing headaches, though, he unintentionally created some more.

The firm did not reveal the identity of the wholesaler, the sales region or the consequences he faced. That wholesaler is still with the firm, though, confirmed the spokesperson.

OppenheimerFunds may be one fund firm able to keep the incident in perspective. Its headquarters had been in Two World Trade in New York. Fortunately, all of its employees successfully evacuated the building.

The mailing included aspirin tablets enclosed inside a plastic container in the envelope holding the collateral. What the wholesaler did not take into account was what happens to mail when it is sorted.

The automatic mail sorters crushed the pills creating (you guessed it) into a fine white powder.

Soon, the New York City Police Department was informed of the powder inside the envelopes. The police added the incident to their alert system through which reporters made sure word of the wholesaler's marketing efforts reached a far larger market than the intended audience of 250.

"This was an unintentional, one-time incident," said a spokesperson for OppenheimerFunds. "The pills were part of the marketing mailing that this person was sending. He did not realize the package would get crushed. As soon as we realized what the situation was we sent faxes and made phone calls to inform the recipients."  

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