Problem With Taking Other Company's Coupons

I was giving a Street Fighter Marketing keynote speech in San Francisco several weeks ago and one of my audience members shared an interesting promotion. Apparently a pizza chain in Bloomington, Indiana (let's call it Tiny Nero's) advertised that they would give a free pizza if you brought in any competitor's coupon, regardless of its value. They were probably thinking it would be a great way to build some foot traffic and get rid of the competition's promotional pieces at the same time. A competitor then took out a full page ad in the local newspaper. In that ad he filled it with $1.00 coupons. (Which would all be good for free pizzas at Little Nero's but only a buck off at his place.) Needless to say, Little Nero's was inundated as you might expect. After giving away an untold amount of free pizza, they then cancelled their offer early which made a number of customers very unhappy. I would would have to say that it was a perfect "Street Fighter" defensive move. So, just be careful when you run a guerrilla style promotion to think it through carefully.