Getting on the same page

It’s not quite a bulletin that large companies frequently have trouble making sure that one division doesn’t step on another. (This is a major plot point in the movie “The Solid Gold Cadillac.”) I saw a particularly egregious example the other day.

On the side of a Manhattan payphone kiosk was an ad for Time Warner Cable’s Road Runner cable modem service. Prominent was this piece of benefit-oriented copy: “Download music up to 50x faster!”

It’s true, and that’s one of the big selling points of broadband Net access. But one does rather wonder how other parts of Time Warner feels about it, parts like Atlantic, Electra, Rhino, and Warner Bros. records. AOLTW is, after all, one of the world’s largest record companies, and they can’t be thrilled that the cable part of the company is urging people to steal its product.