John Biggs at TechCrunch has an amusing look at PaperBecause.com, a website by paper manufacturer Domtar about how awesome paper is. The site itself is pretty funny in its heavy-handed fulsome paper praise. Because, after all, “Underneath all our wireless, streaming, hands-free technology, we’re still people.”
The site declares:
Domtar is committed to the responsible use of paper. We’re also committed to communicating paper’s place and value to the businesses and people that use our products every day. Paper is a sustainable, renewable, recyclable, plant-based product that connects us in so many ways to the important things in life. Great ideas are started on paper. The world is educated on paper. Businesses are founded on paper. Love is professed on paper. Important news is spread on paper.
Biggs retorts:
Businesses aren’t found on paper unless you count the antiquated filing systems required by some lawyers. Love isn’t professed on paper anymore – it’s expressed by Facebook status updates and YouTube videos. Important news is definitely not spread on paper, that much is clear since they decided to create a website instead of publish a wonderfully-printed 500 page book dedicated to the value of paper from the middle ages to today on expensive paper. I’m not being facetious. I’m being realistic.
I had been going to say that this reminded me of the paper company I covered earlier this year who was launching an ad campaign exhorting people to “Put It On Paper”. Then I went back and looked at the article and discovered that it is actually the same company—so this web site is just part of that campaign.
I wonder if the early days of the automobile prompted buggy whip manufacturers to launch ad campaigns about how awesome horses were?
They forgot the one thing electronic media cannot replace: toilet paper. 🙂 Or at least not until Demolition Man becomes a reality.