Just ten days ago I wrote This Just In… Television Advertising Is Not Dead. As if we needed more proof that it is in fact not dead but alive and quite well comes news that a TV ad led directly to the apprehension of the FBI’s Most Wanted Wanted criminal
After that bin Laden guy was taken down, someone had to take his place atop the FBI’s Most Wanted List and that person was James Joseph “Whitey” Bulger, Jr., former Boston mob boss who had been on the run for the past sixteen years. He was caught in Santa Monica along with his longtime girlfriend Catherine Greig.
And how did the FBI finally get their man… how did they finally get the elusive Whitey Bulger?
One word: Television.
Just days after launching a TV campaign aimed at catching him, the FBI received a tip from someone who had seen this PSA, which urged people to be on the lookout for Catherine Greig:
The PSA was running in 14 cities across the US, appearing on such shows as The View, Live with Regis & Kelly and Ellen.
So, you see boys and girls, television advertising is not going anywhere because television is not going anywhere because people still watch television!
Click here for more on the capture of Whitey Bulger.