Hurricane? No problem, if you’ve got OnStar
During a time of crisis, it’s nice to know that you can turn to the media.
Specifically, citizens can rely on the Associated Press, who will more or less publish a press release in full, before it is carefully placed on the front page of the nyt.com:
Before she loaded up two daughters, an aunt, her sister-in-law and a niece to get out of Pearl River, La., north of New Orleans, Cyndy Nobles got into her 2007 Saturn Vue and called OnStar, figuring the operators would know the best way to get to the safety of a relative’s house in Meridian, Miss.
…
[Mo Crane] called to add minutes to his OnStar cell phone, which the service says has better coverage than standard cell services because it transmits from a car rooftop antenna rather than a hand-held phone.
Wait. Which year, make and model has OnStar?
A couple of touches keep this from being a straight press release. I’m almost sure that the reporter added the words ‘the service says’ to final sentence. The original would have read, ‘…which has better coverage…’
This has the usual dead giveaways of awkward, overly long sentences and the quotes that don’t sound like actual people.
But in this case - I think it’s the subadvertisement for the Saturn Vue that makes this a great advertorial.
Link:
Drivers rely on OnStar to evade Hurricane Gustav [AP via nyt.com]
[Oh darn, I seem to have forgotten to link to it.]
Sphere: Related Content