John and Plasmo, I hate to criticise Your Organisation, but it's struck me lately how very lame their TV advertising is at the moment. Take, for instance, oh, just at random, the ad for the online service, that promises things like "loads of info on your favourite shows". Loads of info? Wow, I must go to that website right now! That it finishes with some hopeful-sounding rhetorical question like "what will you find there?" Well, I don't know, why don't you bloody tell me? I realise neither of you has anything to do with this, but still, it must be frustrating to have a great product and have it lousily promoted. (Or perhaps you disagree...? With the lousy promotion bit, obviously, not the great product bit.)

You lucky people to have Buffy tape smugglers!

I have to confess I didn't hear about the german woman being eaten by a crocodile- and while I don't read the newspapers I do hear the BBC news most days, so it can't have got much coverage over here. Funny how they decide what's big news, isn't it?

the ad for the online service, that promises things like "loads of info on your favourite shows". Loads of info? Wow, I must go to that website right now! That it finishes with some hopeful-sounding rhetorical question like "what will you find there?" Well, I don't know, why don't you bloody tell me?

I can't speak for Plasmo -- who caught the logging industry trying to rig one of our online polls the other day, cool! -- but yeah. The advertising is lame.

But we have a fundamental problem with the website.

People see that we have a website (we're almost universally known as a TV and radio broadcaster, for people who don't know) often just assume that we have details of TV and radio shows there.

We do.

But we have literally hundreds of thousands of pages of other, online-only stuff.

Going back seven years.

They don't see other broadcasters doing that, because their websites are just there to back up the TV and radio programs. What we are is an independant third information network.

If you'd like to let us know how to communicate that to the public quickly and simply, you'll have solved our number one problem.

Hrm, it's news mostly John H?

John H.; for those of us not familiar with your information network can you explain in a little more detail than is possible in a single sentence exactly who the organization you work for is , and what they do?

Maybe creative lighting will strike.

Link, John H?

John--maybe they could bring back the "eight cents a day" person to come up with something striking. Of course, you guys probably want to strangle the eight cents a day person, but you have to admit at least it was memorable. At the moment the publicity (not just for the online service--all of it) just screams "cash-strapped public broadcaster"--it's what for some reason I imagine publicity for American PBS being like.

(Everyone else--I'm not being intentionally annoying by not mentioning the name of John and Plasmo's organisation; I'm just not sure how comfortable they are with having it explicitly mentioned.)

(Everyone else--I'm not being intentionally annoying by not mentioning the name of John and Plasmo's organisation; I'm just not sure how comfortable they are with having it explicitly mentioned.)

'twas understood, Angus.

you guys probably want to strangle the eight cents a day person, but you have to admit at least it was memorable.

Changes in government funding mean that it's nowadays a much less euphonious "six point eight cents a day".

Thanks for your offers of help everyone, but because this is a large bureaucratic organisation, your creativity would almost get crushed by a committee or overlooked by a panel or dismissed by a focus group or a combination of the above.

So now that I've committed the sackable offense of Bringing the Organisation Into Disrepute, I'll tell that our front page is here and I'll be fascinated to know what impression it makes on you.

John, insent.