For those needing a break from your typical news story, MINI has sponsored a positive news section on Slate.com. For the uninitiated, Slate is an online news magazine and frequent contributor to NPR. Especially noteworthy are Seth Stevenson’s Ad Report Card articles that he often reads on NPR’s Day to Day, Slate’s daily podcast hosted by Andy Bowers, and political commentary by John Dickerson.
This new MINI-sponsored section features more than 20 positive stories. The articles range in topic from the world possibly being a safer place than we think, to die-hard roosters, to stories of unlikely heroism. MINI’s sponsorship is overt with advertisements for the MINI Motoring Hearts outreach program on almost every page.
MF Analysis: The tone of the whole section just grabs me as “From the happiest car on earth, some news to brighten your day.” As with so much of MINI’s marketing in the past, I’m a willing participant. I know it’s advertising, but it’s advertising with something to offer. So much of the MINI brand message has been “Let’s make the road a better place” and this is another small example of that attitude. Slate’s readers are also a good non-owner audience to invite into MINI’s new community service initiative. I don’t know how long this section will run, or if MINI will be its only sponsor should it continue. But I do know that I appreciate MINI’s contribution to bringing the world some positive stories.
[ Let’s be the Bearer of Good News ] Slate.com
Great idea…….a good way to (re-)introduce the MINI philosophy to smart, open-minded people.
I’d be happy if Slate (owned by Post-Newsweek) and other “traditional” media actually reported news whether positive or not, particularly investigative journalism.
Could MINI sponsor the airing of BBC World News on PBS stations instead? That’d be more brand focused I would think, and the BBC does a terrific job.
It’s a bit of a sad tale about the world, that to fill that “good news” page, they need stories from as much as four years ago!
While I’m not a big fan of “massaged” news stories, as long as they’re vetted for accuracy, I don’t have problem with Slate and MINI throwing a little positive news out there to brighten the day. MINI is working hard to be seen as a positive force for change to the good, and while happy news can be a bit saccarine, I’ll take it for the team.
BCNU,
Rob in Dago
What happened to my post that was critical (in a respectful way) of MINI?
This post went live a day early (by accident) and was then pulled a few minutes afterwards. It was eventually reposted on Friday. If you commented during that time I’m afraid it was probably lost.
Funny that saying something negitive was ‘lost’.
And to clarify, I left my negitive reply and it was reviewed by your ‘staff’ and was posted.
I read it there a liitle more than a few minutes afterwords.
And there were several posts after mine. Those posts that are there now. But mine is not.
Gabe, your’pulled response’ timeline does not compute.
Ron – If it went into moderation you could read it because you wrote it. No one else can see posts that go into moderation until they are approved. That can take 10 minutes to 10 hours depending on when someone gets to it. Generally the only reason posts go into moderation is for questionable language or large number of links. If the story was re-scheduled then it was most likely lost if it wasn’t approved during the few minutes the story was initially live.
If you have something to say, say it now. We’ve never deleted comment unless they were derogatory to other members.