No, Dunkin' Donuts will not be sponsoring border-police efforts
Posted on Mon Feb 9 2009
Cops and donuts. It's an easy punch line. Perhaps too easy for CBS Evening News reporter Steve Hartman to resist.
According to the Texas Border Sherriff's Coalition, Hartman engaged in "sick humor" when he noted in a Feb. 6 report that Dunkin' Donuts was interested in sponsoring a coalition program that lets citizens act as "virtual deputies" to watch for illegal aliens crossing the U.S./Mexico border. (They're "virtual" because they watch from their home computers, which are linked to cameras mounted on poles near the border.) In the report, Hartman claimed that after the initial $2 million grant for the program runs out, "the coalition hopes to keep the site up by selling ads. And since it is a virtual stakeout, the first sponsor they're hoping to get is Dunkin' Donuts."
But Don Reay, executive director at the TBSC, tells BrandFreak that's a load of hogwash. "That's something the reporter threw in," he says, noting that there are no Dunkin' outlets anywhere nearby. Neither Hartman nor reps from Dunkin' could be reached.
—Posted by Todd Wasserman
