Missing 14 Year Old GA/NC/SC – *FOUND*
Thanks to all who passed the word along. The situation has come to a very happy closure and she is now home.
Missing Tim
Since my last post 2 weeks ago, the world has changed dramatically. The financial world is collapsing, the presidential campaign has turned a very ugly page and I have no idea where to turn to learn each critical fact as it unfurls. Such an uncertain time has changed what had receded into a casual awareness of the lack of Tim Russert on the media landscape and cranked it up to an active longing.
Evidently I am not alone. Maybe it was seeing poor ancient Tom Brokaw attempting to wring value from the final presidential debate, maybe it was running into Tim’s son Luke on the streets of my neighborhood, but I started poking around to see if there are others who feel the same. Tim left us almost 4 months ago now, but the loss to the nation seems heightened because of this nasty election +economy one-two punch.
If you feel the same, check out the official MySpace tribute page featuring a greeting from Luke or 1 of the 187 tribute groups on Facebook. There have been a few new comments on these tributes in these last 48 hours since the debate. But for an immediate pulse on the emotion of the country, there’s nothing like Twitter.
The image above is just a snippet of the interesting Tim related tweets from the last few hours – you can check out the most up to date Russert tweets here – Maybe this is yet an additional use for Twitter – a tool to host a collective, primal scream for what we lost on June 13, 2008.
RIP. Elections and Sunday mornings will never be the same.
Where’s your brand AT?
I am a huge, dorky, proud Bruce Hornsby fan. You may say “as in THE RANGE?” and I will just sniff and bore you with Bruce’s phenomenal career milestones since the Range went to pasture nearly 20 years ago. I had plans to go see Bruce a few weeks ago, but the show was canceled due to Hurricane Hanna. While checking his site yesterday in hopes of identifying another date I can make this year, I found this:
I’m sorry – what? “WHERE ARE THE LOCATIONS BRUCE IS PLAYING AT?” Did the webmaster need to go this far out of his way to ruin the construction of this sentence? How about the simple “Where is Bruce playing?” There’s no need to bring locations into this and certainly no need to abuse a perfectly good “at” by forcing it to dangle at the end of the question.
But, does it matter? Does your brand suffer for using incorrect or inappropriate language to communicate with your core audience?
While I was mildly perturbed about the situation, I decided to reach out to a true grammar authority – Jennifer Goff, formerly “Grammar Police” at Brains on Fire – and ask her if she thinks good grammar matters. In fitting style, she put it better than I ever could:
How you say something can be as powerful as what you say. Good grammar/spelling/language,
however you want to look at it, it’s the lowest common denominator of communication. And when I come across a person or a company or a brand that hasn’t taken that minimal time to just proofread, it makes me wonder what other details they’ll miss in my relationship.
Bruce, your music sounds just as sweet. I will still follow you all over tarnation. But please, remind your communications team that they should be vituosos in their own right and live up to the high standard set by you and the Noisemakers.
***AMENDED*** Please see below for an awesome comment from the Bruce Hornsby webmaster. What better quality is there for a brand than the willingness to listen to your customers and make changes? Come to think of it, didn’t Bruce write:
gonna be some changes, changes made
can’t keep on doing what i’ve been doing these days
look in the mirror I see a clown’s face
gotta take it off, gotta get myself straight
WOM-Worthy STAY-FIT @ Hyatt
I am writing this in the Denver Hyatt Regency. I had not looked forward to staying here one way or another because, like my rental “oldsmobuicks”, a Hyatt = a Marriott = a Hilton for me. It’s all basically the same satisfactory experience.
The time change, however, has provided me with enough time to work out before my nutty day here. So, at 4am, I looked in the guest services for info on a workout room. Here’s what I found:
“The Stay Fit concierge is available 24 hours a day to assist you with your quest to “stay fit” while traveling. Our Stay Fit concierge can arrange to have fitness apparel, including workout shirts, shorts, socks, and even shoes delivered to your room.”
This OFFICIALLY takes away any excuse you might have come up with to stay in bed. And when you get to the gym? Big, modern, clean, loaner headphones, nice fluffy towels – the works. The result for me is that if I am in a city where I can not stay Kimpton, I may look for a Hyatt instead. This expereince has changed my brand impression more than any combination of ads could.
Have You Heard The Story of Rody?
On a recent trip to Austin, my family paid a visit to my favorite toy store on the planet – Toy Joy on 29th & Guadelupe. While I have been making excuses to frequent Toy Joy for almost a decide, I feel totally justified shopping there now I have an actual child for whom to buy toys!
When we walked in, baby in tow, we saw a row of brightly colored blow-up…somethings – burros? ponies? It wasn’t clear. We were staring at them quizzically when one of Toy Joy’s incredible helpful sales staff directly asked us “Would you like to hear the story of Rody?” Who doesn’t love a great story? Here is what she told us.
- Rody is made in Italy (subtext: not China).
- The company that makes Rody ONLY makes the Rody – it is their specialty.
- Rody is safe for small children but can be inflated further as the child grows – safe to 400 lbs.
- They keep one of the store models a little more inflated so the adult staff can play.
By the time she got to her last point, 2 things had happened:
- The saleswoman had mounted a blue Rody and was happily bouncing away.
- I was whipping out my credit card convinced I would be depriving my child if he did not have one of these to play with on his first birthday.
When was the last time a salesperson told YOU a great story? Did you buy?