In 1994, the TODAY anchor team of Bryant Gumbel and Katie Couric asked an honest question: “What is Internet?”
Way back in 1994, 25 years ago, then Today Show anchors Bryant Gumbel and Katie Couric were flummoxed by “internet.”
And, what “@” meant.
Bryant: That little mark, with the “a” and the circle around it. “At?” Katie thought it was “about.”
Katie: Or “around.”
Do you remember? If you do remember, did you know what they were talking about?
But, in the most prescient part of the segment, given what’s going on at NBC now (Matt Lauer, Ronan Farrow’s new book “Catch and Kill”), Bryant exemplified the “@” with this:
Bryant: And then it sounded stupid when I said it, “Violence at NBC. See there it is, violence at NBC GEcom.” I mean, what is internet anyway.
Bryant, I don’t know where you are now (wait, wait, don’t tell me, HBO’s Real Sports), but you’d be interested in this: today (no pun intended) we have “#NBCcoverup.”
Ted Block is a veteran “Mad Man,” having spent 45+ years in the advertising industry. During his career, he was media director of several advertising agencies, including Benton & Bowles in New York and Foote, Cone and Belding in San Francisco; account management director on clients as varied as Clorox, Levi’s and the California Raisin Advisory Board (yes, Ted was responsible for the California Dancing Raisins campaign); and regional director for Asia based in Tokyo for Foote, Cone where he was also the founding president of FCB’s Japanese operations. Ted holds a Bachelor’s degree in communications from Queens College and, before starting in advertising, served on active duty as an officer on USS McCloy (DE-1038) in the U.S. Navy. Besides writing Around the Block, Ted is also a guest columnist for the Palm Beach Post.
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Around the Block 