Did you know you can track Santa’s progress tonight via NORAD?
Yep, as in the North American Aerospace Defense Command. And all because of a misprinted phone number.
Back in 1955, a newspaper ad for a Sears store in Colorado Springs advertised a direct line to Santa Claus. Callers instead reached CONRAD — NORAD’s predecessor — and hotline operator Colonel Harry Shoup obligingly used the radar to track Santa for the kids on the line.
That’s customer service, folks.
And a tradition was born. Since 1958, NORAD volunteers have personally responded to phone calls and emails about Santa from children all around the world. Today NORAD provides up-to-the-minute info on Santa’s location via Google Earth and Google Maps, and Twitter and Facebook posts about each sighting, including the cookies and beverages consumed by the big man at each stop.
Talk about turning a wrong into a right.
Way to go, Harry.
Be free, live, run
I have spent a lot of time this past week watching — and writing about — the Olympics.
And while I knew I would be glued to the TV watching Olympic tennis and gymnastics and swimming and diving and basketball, I have been pleasantly surprised to find how much I am also enjoying….
The commercials.
Advertisers get all kinds of props for the spots they put together for the Super Bowl each year, but I don’t think enough has been said — if anything — about the commercials in the London Olympics.
My personal fav?
The ad ‘The Beach,’ featuring the Chappo song “Come Home.” I’ve seen it several times, and it makes me laugh every time.
Give those guys a medal.
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Posted in Advertising, Business, Commentary, Entertainment, Humor, Life, Olympics, Sports, Television, TV
Tagged advertising, basketball, Business, Chappo, Come Home song, commentary, commercials, diving, gymnastics, Humor, London 2012, Olympic medal, Olympics, Sears, Sears Appliances, Sports, Super Bowl, swimming, Television, The Beach ad, TV