Gossip

How many bankers does it take to text "Alex" to the Telegraph?

You can get the Telegraph's star turn, City Slicker Alex, on your mobile. All you have to do is text "Alex" to the UK short number, 82088 and pay normal SMS charges. So the question is: can the typical Square Mile merchant banker manage to do that?

There's no doubting the popularity of Alex. But there are some question marks! Amongst them, we aren't going to ask "what's in it for the Telegraph?" because that would be inappropriate.

Annelies van den Belt, the Telegraph Group's New Media Director said, "The Alex cartoon is incredibly popular with our readers and we are delighted to be able to offer it through a new medium, direct to people's mobile phones. This development is yet another example of how we are expanding and enhancing our digital offering".

Well, sure. But:

Last first. According to the press release. Black 'n' Red notebooks are "a 42 year old brand with huge and growing loyalty."

According to the "how to" page, it's just a logo. No link to any Black 'n' Red web site. That leaves your investigative Sniffer with two problems. First, like the majority of any wunch of bankers, the Hunkymouse's thumbs aren't good at texting, and he has particular trouble persuading his Sony Ericsson "Walkman" phone to accept numbers in the body of a text. And second, could it actually be that this "notebook" is really a paper-bound sheaf?

  Tags: Daily Telegraph, Alex