You're the guy who contacted me and made the arrangements to have Bruno's ads put on the MUPC site. I went very briefly, alone, to Our World Underwater last weekend, as my husband Bob and I had regularly enjoyed it in the past and I have a few friends I wanted to see and support.
In the couple of hours I was able to spend in the booth (thrown together for them several years ago--probably will fall apart before updated), I learned about the tremendous rancor and outrage caused by my agreement to put the Bruno's ad all over the website. It is the ONLY space ad on that site--and the advertiser paid for the hosting that these people would otherwise have to scrape out of their treasury and pay me for. Also, I was embarrassed for them, offering advertising that not a soul felt worth taking advantage of.
But did a single soul get the hint and ask to have an ad placed on the site to keep the Bruno's ad company? HELL NO!!!! I was really saddened to read this account of all the extremely obvious missed opportunities to do the most basic promotion of one of our state's glorious attractions--very one they need to enlist public support for protecting. I really didn't know that the poor damn little booklet that nobody can be bothered to contribute to except to pick on after it's printed doesn't even get distributed intelligently. They seem to forget that this is THEIR information--I always beg for proofing before going to press, and never get it. Amazing how people who claim to know things like correct location coordinates can't be bothered to offer that information to the organization's publication. People object to having our personal photography on the cover but NEVER offer other images we can use. Go figure.
I'm sorry to let this response degenerate into ranting, but this situation represents more than my personal loss. I was originally persuaded to redesign and produce this literature because I really do care about Great Lakes shipwrecks and felt it important to present the subject well. I don't perform these professional services this cheaply for any other nonprofit, and as an ad agency, I get extremely good printing prices. This continues to be lost on all but a few wonderful people, who are then subjected to abuse with no offers of help. It's time to do another booklet, and all this group has done is generate a 6-page document dictating the process they want followed for future booklets. There has been no sign of any other action that I am aware of. Please pass this on to the Bruno's employee that I heard was looking for me last weekend--I was sorry to miss meeting her.
I hope I can find a way to work with the State of Michigan on promoting what I know to be a fabulous tourism opportunity for a niche market--when I have the time to pursue that. Meantime, I have a living to make with clients who appreciate what I do for a reasonable price. But I will always regret the missed opportunities represented here. As I was reminded last weekend, there is more at stake here than competing egos and petty turf wars!
