07.09.2008 — New York Times columnist Alan Schwartz has some rather unpleasant things to say about his own DIY theater installation, and even worse things to say about Geek Squad's effort to save the day.

Schwartz's July 3 column, called "Smart Gadgets Acting Dumb, as an Upgrade Goes Awry," went something like this…

A platoon of installers arrived right on time: one to unpack the monitor; one to calibrate the TV functions; another to take care of the remote; and another whose sole purpose was to ensure that my dining-room chair did not levitate out the window. The first guy plunked the monitor on the stand, peeled back the protective cellophane and vamoosed as the others cajoled the TV into functioning properly.

It did, to an extent. I had never seen "No Signal" in such splendorous HD (or its much-anticipated sequel, "Component 2"). Images appeared in a range of aspect ratios - from 16:9 to 4:3 to something so distorted that even Picasso would have shuddered. Geek No. 1 was downright befuddled - he fiddled with menus, submenus and more on the TV and cable box before deciding that, naturally, the Time Warner box was to blame. "Good luck with that," he cackled.

Amused as I was to read Schwartz's column, that's not what my blog is about here.

It's about the great marketers at Electronic Design Group, Piscataway, N.J.

EDG, which regularly puts out great email newsletters, took the NYT article and made the most of it. The company sent an email to customers and friends that read:

I just read this article today, and thought I would share a few thoughts. First, I would like to quickly sum up what happened; somebody wanted a new TV with some of the current technology they have been hearing about. Everything they mentioned is easily attainable right now. This is NOT some elaborate set-up; it's just a TV, DVD, Cable Box and Internet connection. This person was so frustrated that the entire project was scrapped!

If you are having any thoughts like, "Why would we want to get EDG involved?" here is a perfect example of why. Simply buying a TV is not what it used to be, a client needs something more than knowledge gleaned off the internet. If someone actually does get a picture (and sound) up, they probably did make a primal grunt of joy and triumph. When I have visited such attempts (I'm usually scared to mention it) but 90% of the time, something is wrong and they are afraid to touch it, often just accepting it. That's not right, folks.

So the next time you hear someone say, "Oh, I just need a TV, I'll pick one up at my local Big Box retailer." Do them an immense favor -- share this article below, and you will make a friend in the end.

Nice job, EDG, as always.