I was so incredibly proud of myself for getting radio spots for MPOW on our local NPR affiliate, which has a huge readership. So I was cleaning my office and listening to a show about intelligent design when I heard the spot read aloud. I puffed with pride, I strutted around my office… and then I collapsed in my office chair, aghast that despite a month of careful coaching the radio host read the URL as “el el eye dot org,” not “el eye eye dot org.”
In case anyone out there thinks I was anything less than scrupulous, I made a point of emphasizing that it’s el-eye-eye, and in the last email to me, just five days ago, my contact carefully noted (because I had raised the point so often she probably thought it was a verbal tic), “L-I-I dot org.”
Now, don’t even get me started about the challenge of promoting a website with a nine-syllable three-word name of faintly fustian flavor. Please, just do not go there or I will implode. I do not want to implode. I want to Keep It Together. Mildly kludgy name and all, I really was psyched about these radio spots on behalf of dear ol’ MPOW, and now I’m half tempted to drive forty miles into the city, right this minute, and hold up signs that say O.K., YOU DON’T ANSWER YOUR PHONES AFTER “BUSINESS HOURS” BUT PLEASE STOP READING THE WRONG URL? PLEASE? PLEASE???
I think I’m entitled to an on-air correction and a credit for the spots read wrong. Come to that, I’m also entitled to a soft pink blanky, a large order of fries from In-N-Out, and a bottle of Drambuie with a straw. But I’ll take the correction and the credit.
Of course, I have a board meeting in the morning. I plan to rip out my liver with a pair of pliers so I will be conveniently inconvenienced. “Karen cannot be disturbed right now. She’s in ICU.” The very words comfort me.
Intelligent design? Oh ho, I think not.
Posted on this day, other years:
- ALA Midwinter 2012: Try a Little Tenderness - 2012
- My ALA Schedule - 2007
- ALA Technology Peeve #1: The Current Reference File - 2004
- Wireless at Midwinter - 2004
You are entitled to all of these things. Except maybe the straw. This used to happen to me all the time at my former workplace. If it wasn’t the URL, it was the phone number. We got a lot of free advertising, I can tell you. What is it with three-letter names that makes advertising people loose their ability to read and write correctly? Good luck.
Honey Honey Honey, don’t worry about it. Nobody learns the url from a radio spot. They’re driving around in their cars; they don’t write anything down. The important thing is that you got the information out there where people will hear about it for the first time. Then they’ll hear about it somewhere else, and then from someone who used it, etc. Then, a week later, when they need the info, they’ll just google it.
Not to worry! It’s a total success that you got the info out there! Good work!