New iPhone commercial features real phone number to Tartine, a San Francisco bakery

We were watching TV last night when we noticed the latest iPhone commercial features the phone number to Tartine Bakery & Cafe in San Francisco. The phone number is pasted into a text message by the Apple hand model, a move meant to show that the iPhone finally has copy and paste.

Since we’re from the era of “555,” we thought it was interesting that Apple flashed a real phone number on the screen. Certainly there are plenty of other people  like us who took the time to call the number.

Here’s the commercial and here’s the recorded message you hear when you call Tartine (appropriately recorded on Ginny’s iPhone 3GS):

It’s not the first time Apple has given real businesses a plug in their commercials. We don’t know if the businesses are paying to appear in the spots or not. One San Francisco food blog reports Tartine’s regularly had lines out the door even before the ads appeared on national TV.

News and Observer publisher writes letter to readers

The open letter from The N&O publisher.

The publisher of The News & Observer wrote an open letter to readers today, acknowledging the newspaper is “upsetting our readers on a daily basis” because of changes to the newspaper. Newspaper publishers are usually only quoted in their own papers when they’re defending or lauding their work, so it’s worth paying attention when they speak up.

In his letter, publisher Orage Quarles III says some readers are “quite unhappy with the changes we’ve been making to the print edtion of the N&O.” The changes, of course, all center on a reduction in content — ranging from fewer enterprise stories to recently trimmed TV listings (messing with the TV guide always pisses off newspapers’ older audiences).

It’s easy to understand why The N&O feels lighter these days. Layoffs and buyouts pared the newsroom down to 132 full-time employees back in April. That’s about half the staff that was employed in the newsroom four years ago, according to an April 2009 article in The Independent. A newspaper simply can not produce the same product after cutting that much staff.

The 754-word letter written by Quarles appears as nearly a full-page ad on the inside of the local section and doesn’t seem to be available on the newspaper’s website (but it is now thanks to my mad typing skills. You can read it here.) Here are the highlights:

* The latest adjustments to the paper include reducing the TV grid and weather page, trimming even more stock and mutual fund information and reducing the number of pages in the newspaper.

* Prices have increased in racks and stores and for home delivery. Subscription rates will increase again in August, Quarles said. (Home delivery rates were also raised in July 2008).

* The N&O will launch a redesigned website in mid-August.

* The size of the pages in the print edition will shrink in August as the newspaper follows a money-saving industry trend.

* Quarles notes the excellent job the paper has been doing in watchdog and investigative reporting with its Executive Privilege series.

A subscription stand outside Kroger on Six Forks Road.

I’m guessing this won’t be the last letter we read from Quarles as The News & Observer and other newspapers continue to find their footing in this dreary economy and Internet-loving landscape. I’ve vowed to continue to subscribe to the newspaper until I’ve paid off my student loans for my print journalism degree, even though I read nearly all my news online these days.

I know us Internet nerds love to beat up on newspapers. We make fun of the print editions. We mock their cluttered homepages and poor uses of Twitter and facebook. But there’s no denying that if The News & Observer didn’t send its reporters to courthouses, city halls and college campuses, more government dollars would get wasted and voiceless victims would be ignored.

Just today the N&O revealed that North Carolina court systems failed to fully compensate at least 80,000 crime victims because courts are ignoring state law and using antiquated computer systems. Reporters Joseph Neff and David Raynor poured over 244,489 court cases to come to that conclusion. What other local media outlet or citizen journalist is going to take the time to do that?

This summer the chancellor and provost at N.C. State University and the chairman of the university’s Board of Trustees resigned after the N&O showed that former first lady Mary Easley landed a $170,000-a-year job through cronyism. Those resignations might not have happened if those officials had been forthcoming about how Easley got her job. But The N&O didn’t relent, and through public records and interviews, reporters showed that top university officials lied about how Easley got her job. The News & Observer’s “Executive Privilege” series also showed how former governor Mike Easley used his influence to snag sweet real estate deals and free flights on private jets. Federal authorities are investigating whether anything illegal occurred.

A copy of The News and Observer lays in the yard of a home in Five Points.

None of these investigations would be possible if a reporter wasn’t being paid a salary that comes from advertising dollars and subscriptions. No doubt the industry has made some missteps and has been slow to embrace new forms of media that readers are craving. But newspapers need the public’s support now, more than ever, to survive.

So don’t be one of those people who joins the bandwagon and blanketly declares “newspapers are dying.” The journalism that newspapers are practicing is crucial to maintaining our democracy. Newspapers must figure out how to make money off our mobile news habits.

Until that happens, support your local newspaper. They desperately need you as much as you need them.

Follow @ThisIsBeautiful on Twitter.

Wacky Pringles banner ad proves you shouldn’t always take company communications too seriously

Banner ads don’t have to be boring and neither does your copy.  Pringles recently proved that when it published an award-winning banner ad that keeps people clicking on the ad.

The ad features a chick with a Pringles can stuck on her left hand (no doubt b/c she was trying to get the last of the stack out … will Pringles make a wider can already?!) and a guy proposing to her. The ad proclaims that “Love can be complicated” and the mustached Pringles man in the corner urges you to “click.” That’s where the fun begins.

Once you start clicking on the ad, you’re pulled into an amusing storyline involving your boss, a joke about facebook and even acknowledgments of how crazy it is that you’re continuing to *click* on this seemingly pointless ad. Click here to see the ad in action.

None of these things have any direct correlation to Pringles, but you clicked through to the last screen, didn’t you? Even if you didn’t, I’m guessing you went at least 15-20 clicks deep, all because of the funny, casual copywriting. Which brings me to my next point: Lighten up!

The next time you’re writing copy for a company newsletter, advertisement, blog, manual, etc., consider whether you need to write for the suits in the conference room or if you can loosen your tie and write like how you talk to the IT guy in the break room.

Sometimes you need the jargon to be taken seriously. Sometimes jargon and formality make you seem stuffy and boring. Know your audience and don’t be afraid to write for them. You never know, it might lead your company to be an Internet buzz instead of Pringles.

New Chick-fil-A Billboard Misses Chance to Connect

Chick-fil-A has a lock down on cows in marketing. The chicken-only fast food chain started using cows to promote its brand back in 1995, when the company put up a billboard with cows painting the now-famous misspelled phrase: “EAT MOR CHIKIN.” Since then the billboard cows have turned 3-D and they continue to paint a variety of catchy, anti-chicken messages alongside roadways in America.

In North Carolina’s Triangle area, the billboards appear to be updated with some regularity, often changing to reflect different seasons or trends. The latest billboard we spotted is at I-440 and Hillsborough Street in Raleigh, and it may be the most clever yet. The billboard features a real toll-free phone number (1-866-613-COWS) and when you call it you get a light-hearted recording that features ringing phones, mooing cows and this message:

Chick-fil-A Billboard Recording from This Is Beautiful on Vimeo.

“You have reached the bovine chicken chat line, where you can chat with tons and tons of cows about chicken. All our cows are busy. While you’re waiting, why not get to know some of these fuzzy fans of chicken. Hefer 9672 is a twelve hundred pounder from Kentucky who likes long walks in the pastor, watching cars go by from poastor and eathing the pastor. She’s also an aspiring author, writing a book called “The Burgers of Wrath.”

Bull 5541 is a bull from Chicago, with a pierced nose and a nasty temper, but he loves people who eat chikcen and the good folks at Chick-fil-A who make the chicken. Bull 5541’s pet peeves are cow tipping and the color red — espcially when it’s meat.

All our cows are still busy please try calilng the bovine chat line later. The cows thank you for calling and for not eating burgers. This call made possible by Chick-fil-A. You may hang up and grab some chicken now.”

We think it’s cool that Chick-fil-A is trying to find a new way to reach potential customers. We’re sure a lot of curious drivers have dialed the number while cruising down the road (which raises the issue of safety … but we’ll leave that one untouched today), and they probably chuckled like we did when we heard the cute message. But the recording leaves you wanting more.

We wonder why Chick-fil-A didn’t use the recording as a way to generate fun feedback from its customers. Maybe the message could have ended by encouraging callers to leave a message of their own about Chick-fil-A. Sure, they probably would have to sift through a lot of fratboy humor to get to the few good nuggets (wokka, wokka!) that were recorded, but wouldn’t that be fun? Perhaps, Chick-fil-A could have encouraged callers to do their best cow impression and posted the variety of “moos” people recorded while driving down the road.

The toll-free number, while clever, is also a missed opportunity for Chick-fil-A to build its community and receive feedback from its fans. The restaurant already has a huge fan base, otherwise folks wouldn’t dress up like cows for free food or camp out overnight at new restaurant openings to win free Chick-fil-A for a year.

Chick-fil-A had a chance to engage its community. The chain was almost there. They posted a funny message that sticks to its cow-boasting brand. It may have been better, however, if they took it one step further and let its audience have a voice.

Just because the Chicago Tribune is publicizing its Twitter efforts doesn’t mean you should!

I’ve been impressed with the Chicago Tribune’s use of Twitter since I stumbled upon its newsroom twitter account, @ColonelTribune, in summer 2008. The Colonel is the Trib’s “web ambassador,” serving as the face of the newsroom on the Internet. With more than 7,400 followers, the @ColonelTribune twitter account is an awesome example of how big media should use Twitter. The Colonel does more than provide obligatory news updates. Instead, @ColonelTribune engages “his” audience through thoughtful replies. He also posts breaking news (even if it means linking to competing media outlet like @Suntimes), retweets followers and posts witty observations, all without overly compromising the Tribune’s objectivity.

Last week, the Tribune took another major step forward in the Twitterverse. On Thursday, The Tribune published the Twitter names of its editors in the masthead (the graphic on the editorial page that tells you who all the big wigs at a newspaper are). Change of any sort to a newspaper’s masthead is a big deal — years can go by without a single design change, other than swapping out an editor’s name.  So the fact that the Tribune decided to acknowledge its social media presence in its print edition deserves applause.

But closer inspection of the publisher and five editors whose Twitter names appear in the masthead reveals that they may have rushed to press. As of this writing, five of them have fewer than 100 updates on Twitter, which means their accounts are either spanking new or rarely used. The publisher’s account, @twhunter, features only one update. The editorial page editor’s account, @BruceDold, features the brown avatar, a classic sign of a newbie. The most prolific tweeter listed in the masthead is @Bill80, the paper’s digital editor who has posted 469 updates and was quoted on CNET last week as saying:

“I’ve been on Twitter a couple of years, since it first emerged from South by Southwest, and so I’ve been on it for awhile, as you would hope that the digital editor of the Tribune” would be, said Bill Adee, the paper’s digital editor. “And in the last month or so, we’ve really tried to get our reporters and editors on (Twitter) to show them how it could make them better reporters and editors.”

So if he’s been on Twitter a couple of years (say 365 days x 2) and has only posted 469 tweets, I’ve got to question how actively he engages his audience.

If you’re using Twitter for business, it’s important that you become comfortable using the medium before you publicly advertise that you can be found there. There’s a learning curve to Twitter. Twitter is about much more than answering the question “what are you doing?”. It’s about sharing information, engaging in conversations and displaying your (or your brand’s) personality.

It takes a while to learn how to use Twitter (both for pleasure or for business), and there’s nothing wrong with committing a few faux pas along the way. But it’s best to experiment and get them out of the way before you publicize your company’s emergence in Twitterville.

Once you’re comfortable using Twitter and you’re ready to engage the online community you plan to build through your tweets, then you should take the steps that make sense to let your audience know where they can find you @.