Making TV Stars Cool

In an age when computer animation makes almost anything possible visually, CNN took a different tack with its latest marketing campaign: It turned to one of the nation’s oldest printers, Hatch Show Print in Nashville.

Dating back to 1879, Hatch’s iconic letterpress designs have decorated the posters of music stars from Ernest Tubb to Shania Twain to Bruce Springsteen. CNN’s Scot Safon says the network was attracted to Hatch because its design is “so solid, powerful, and real—and timeless.”

While the striking prints are appearing mostly in TV ads, posters of them proved so popular at the conventions, Safon says, that the network is discussing ways to expand the marketing effort.

This article first appeared in the October 2008 issue of The Washingtonian. For more articles from that issue, click here. 

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