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Subject:Re: How you handle examples does matter From:Peter Gold <peter -at- knowhowpro -dot- com> To:techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com Date:Tue, 27 Sep 2011 16:06:27 -0500
Date: Mon, 26 Sep 2011 11:36:01 -0400
> From: Julie Stickler <jstickler -at- gmail -dot- com>
>
> We once were contacted by a customer that was upset because we'd used
> an actual customer company name in an example. The customer wasn't
> complaining that we were using *their* company name, but because the
> name was one of their competetors. Customer A wasn't happy that we
> were "promoting" Customer B in an example.
>
In the late-middle of the last century, when Ashton-Tate (who?) was just a
garage-based startup, it introduced it's personal-computer database software
with a glossy full-color photo of a bilge pump spread across a two-page
spread in computer magazines, under the banner headline, "dBase II VS the
Bilge Pumps." The copy began something like, "We all know what bilge pumps
do. They all suck. That's the trouble with most personal computer database
software. They all suck, too!"
Of course, the point was that dBase II didn't suck.
The back story, supposedly: The bilge-pump company to Ashton-Tate about
using their pump - allegedly the best in the business - in the ad. They felt
their product was demeaned. Ashton-Tate offered to apologize: "We'll gladly
run another ad with the headline that says your product doesn't suck!"
"Never mind."
Regards,
Peter
_______________________
Peter Gold
KnowHow ProServices
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