Yet Another Example Why Proofreading Is Of Critical Importance

Unfortunately, nothing can derail a marketing campaign faster than a major typographical error, a regrettable breach of etiquette, the incorrect translation of a foreign language, or some other noteworthy faux pas. And in the social media age, where such errors can go viral in a matter of seconds and almost instantly gain worldwide notoriety, the potential embarrassment and humiliation knows no bounds, either culturally or geographically.

Marketing and public relations textbooks are filled with famous examples of mistakes like these. Now, enter Exhibit #Gazillion, and the next addition to these tomes, courtesy of the redevelopment commission of the city of South Bend, Indiana.

According to WANE-TV, the CBS affiliate in Fort Wayne, Indiana, an embarrassing South Bend digital billboard with a very noticeable spelling error, has been pulled because of the severity of the typo. Situated at the intersection of State Road 23 and Ironwood in South Bend, and installed just this past Thursday, the billboard encouraged people to go to "southbendon.com" to review the "15 best things about our PUBIC schools." Obviously it was supposed to say "public", but the "l" was left out. A photo of the billboard follows below:

Inexplicably (and ironically), WANE-TV's sister station, WSBT-TV, reports that four people from the Blue Waters Group, the ad agency responsible, actually proofread the copy before the billboard went up, and the mistake got by all of them. There's no comment from any of the principals involved on EXACTLY how such a noticeable error slipped through the cracks on an ad with hardly ANY text. Unacceptable!

Click here if you'd like to view the WANE-TV news segment on this story...