“What’s with Angela?” Gazette reader Bill Beck wants to know. “It’s either the greatest promotion ever run by a newspaper or somebody has wonderful adoration for a wonderful lady.”
Bill, it’s no promotion.
Her name is Angela. and he’s been writing to her every day this week.
But the letters haven’t been carried by snail mail, or Facebook, or via email. Instead, this man has purchased full-page ads in The Gazette several days in a row.
The anonymous admirer is trying to persuade a woman to come back to him, and he has been effusive about his lost love. There has been more than a trace of sadness in the verse.
“Your touch is the memory of the world we once shared together and your voice is its melody.”
The newsroom became curious, so we asked the advertising department who bought them. Advertising Director Brad Howard said, the ad buyer wished to remain anonymous.
Believe it or not, at newspapers there is a firewall between the advertising department and the newsroom. If we use a confidential source and a major advertiser wanted to know that source’s identity, the newsroom would not provide it.
It this case the firewall worked the other way.
“You are the light of my life and I see you. Your tenderness touched my cold, cold hands and brought warmth back to me again and forever.”
Hey, our friends in advertising did what they could.
“We’ve reached out to the person who purchased this ad,” Howard said.
No luck. Cupid will have to work his magic unassisted by a newspaper columnist.
“There has never been, nor will there ever be anyone like you again. You are beautiful, you are the heart of love and the reason I am still here.”
For an individual to pay for this, well, it’s expensive. There’s a discount for running full-page ads on consecutive days, but this still runs into many thousands of dollars — enough for a European vacation.
There is a back story and we have no way of knowing what it is.
The ad buyer must believe Angela is a newspaper reader. If she doesn’t respond, the ads will have the same effect as a series of unanswered tweets launched into the twittersphere.
But you never know. Maybe the ads will strike a chord. Maybe they’ll resonate.
That would be up to Angela.
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Hear Barry Noreen on 
KRDO NewsRadio 105.5 FM and 1240 AM at 6:35 a.m. Fridays. Contact him at 636-0363 or 
barry.noreen@gazette.com.