More Press Coverage

The TV station that first aired the plate-spinning commercial (coincidentally, the same home town where my mother, brother, nieces, and some in-laws live) did a little news spot about the ad and the bill that Reynolds opposes. You can watch the story by clicking here.

Somehow I can't help but think the station is missing the local angle of the story. Seriously, what are the odds that a regional political commercial would start airing in the home town of half of my family? The fact that so many are watching the thing out there just to watch someone they personally know makes it a good local story in my humble opinion.

Of course, I can't imagine what counts for news anymore. I tried sending out some press releases to my past home town newspapers about the spot. Some of the places where I lived were more than "small" enough to find a regional/national commercial featuring one of their own somewhat newsworthy, right?

Take my last residence of Carol Stream, IL. Not a whole lot of national attention to any of the residents there, past or present . The micro burst got our town on CNN & The Weather Channel, but there's not a lot else bringing attention to the place. Since the micro burst is what brought me to Vegas and Vegas was where I filmed the commercial that is airing in places across the country, including Illinois...you get the picture.

Well, allow me to share an e-mail response to the press release from one of the papers. I'm certain I wasn't supposed to get this as it was forwarded to one editor (with the heading, "Do we give a damn?") and subsequently responded to WITHOUT realizing that if you hit "reply all" or anything like that, you send the e-mail to everyone (in this case...ME).

Re: Do we give a Damn? - PRESS RELEASE - Former Carol Stream Resident Featured in National TV Commercial

Randy:

In the famous words of Mr. Butler, "frankly, me dear, I do not give a damn".

Bruce

I resisted the urge to point out to the guy that he mistakenly sent me his rather classy reply. It took even MORE restraint to not point out that he somehow misquoted the single most famous line in movie history.

I'll be kind and not mention exactly which Carol Stream paper had no need for a story about a former local who moved on to bigger things as a result of a tragedy in their town. Heck, it seems they can't even afford a fact-checker (how exactly do you get that quote wrong?). I ill mention that it is in the smallest and least-read of the papers serving the town and leave it at that. No wonder, huh?

In other news...

According to MICHAEL MANNING, the commercial was briefly discussed on NPR's "All Things Considered" the other day when mentioning the proposed and opposed bill. Very nice.

My niece was also kind enough to post the YouTube version of the ad on her blog. Many thanks, Emily!