Starbucks needs a copy editor to catch and fix a typo in its wifi log-in page.
A closer look at the copy at upper left:
The word they’re looking for, of course, is complimentary.
Poynter’s Jim Romenesko tells us:
My repeated attempts to shame them and have it changed have failed.
So now, I guess we’ll take a swing at it.
I’m not a Starbucks kind of guy. I’m happy to report that McDonald’s has no typos on its own free wifi sign-in page. None that I’ve discovered, that is.
Interestingly, I found two errors on wifi pages — on the same day! — last December in South Africa.
The first was this one, at Johannesburg’s O.R. Tambo Airport.
Stuck in the airport all day, I was renewing my wifi service every two hours. On the second or third time around, I suddenly spotted this typo.
Eventually, my attempt to leave town failed. I was forced to spend the night in a nearby hotel. Where the wifi was down. I contacted tech support from the hotel’s internet service provider via this page.
But I had to laugh when I found this.
So what is it with wifi services? Clearly, they need copy editors. Because clearly, they spell about as well as graphic artists do.
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You know who else needs a copy editor?
Local TV news operations. Chicago’s WMAQ-TV in particular. And Harrisburg’s Fox43 TV news. And Local 15 News in Mobile, Ala. And other local TV news operations. And CNN and CNN Money and Fox News (and Fox News again) and German news channel N24. And Martha Stewart’s TV operation. And the Disney Channel. And creators of mobile apps. And Google News’ ‘bots. And Baseball jersey manufacturers. And T-shirt designers. And more T-shirt designers. And Georgetown University. And Kansas State University. And the New York Jets, the Minnesota Vikings, the St. Louis Cardinals and the Washington Nationals (boy, do they need a copy editor). And the National Hockey League. And Fox Sports. And college athletic department ticket offices. And the Virginia general assembly. And college alumni magazines. And pharmacies. And the makers of Sudafed. And Borders bookstore. And the U.S. Postal Service. And government agencies and political candidates. And Tea Party candidates. And city and county Boards of Elections. And the state of Pennsylvania. And road paving contractors. And the city of Norfolk, Va. And the Ohio Dept. of Transportation. And South African traffic cops. And billboard companies. And sign painters. And Home Depot and manufacturers of “hoodies.†And rubber stamp designers. And glass etchers. And restaurants, breakfast joints, Chinese restaurants and cake decorators. And more cake decorators. And drive-in movie theater managers. And South Africa’s New Age and Sunday Independent newspapers. And Dublin’s Sunday Business Post. And newspapers in the U.K. And the Washington Post, the New York Times (Hey! A repeat offender!) the New York Post, Newsday, the Chicago Sun-Times (Another repeat offender!), the Rochester, N.Y., Democrat & Chronicle, the Seattle Times, the Missoula, Mont., Missoulian, the Times-Record of Denton, Md., the Amarillo (Texas) Globe News, the Waynesboro News Virginian, the Virginian-Pilot, the Green Bay Press-Gazette, and the Carbondale, Ill., Southern Illinoisian. And the Associated Press. And Mann’s Jeweler’s Accent magazine. And Investment News magazine. And Time magazine.
