After some mild internet research, I found this article, printed in the Sun in 2006. On the one hand, perhaps this isn't a valid article suggestion because it's old. On the other hand, it exemplifies two crucial things that I consider benefits of journalism: 1) it helped a reader solve a mystery, years after it was published, and 2) the journalist who wrote the article looked for answers in various places, not only achieving the truth, but exposing a typical human blunder.
One of the employees of Forever 21, when interviewed, blew off the Evangelistic phrase as "just advertising." You might have noticed that "John 3:16" seems vaguely similar to, I don't know...a biblical reference. After probing a more credible source (a spokeswoman in Forever 21's corporate headquarters), the writer of the article found out that the phrase actually represents the LIFE PHILOSOPHY of the company's very religious Korean Christian owners. The owners wanted to spread the good news, as they saw it, to everyone who buys from their stores. Ha! So much for the woman who was initially consulted. Good thing she's not in charge of publicity.
There you have it. Corporations like Forever 21 are large and it's easy for company information to confuse the public, media inquirers, and employees. Journalists who trek through the muck to find more satisfying answers not only solve problems for themselves, but for people like me, future readers who look to archives of their investigative work for answers to the tiniest and quirkiest of questions.
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