This trending Bluffton baby gets TV time on Good Morning America & CNN

Carter Louise Settle, the 12-day-old Bluffton baby of billboard fame, got some air time Friday morning — now, she’s gone international.

She was on ABC’s Good Morning America just after 8 a.m. Friday.

“I just got a text from someone saying they saw her on CNN,” father Will Settle said around 10:15 a.m.

“I’ve heard from people I haven’t heard from in 10 years,” he said. Moments later, he added: “I’ve also gotten calls from people want to insure her — they know she’ll need insurance at some point.”

Some of the attention, though, hasn’t been good — we’ll get to that later.

First, the backstory: little Carter was born June 25 at Coast Carolina Hospital. She was 6 pounds, 12 ounces. She was the first girl born into the Settle family in 137 years.

Will Settle, director of sales for Marlin Outdoor Advertising, was surprised to learn his co-workers had put up a 12-foot-by-24-foot vinyl birth announcement — complete with little Carter’s yawning mug — on a giant pink billboard off S.C. 315, along Settle’s sales route.

The story, first reported by The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette, was picked up by the Associated Press and U.S. News and World Report. Good Morning America and Yahoo! later ran their own versions. Now, you can see Carter’s face on the Independent’s website, a London-based British outlet.

“The phone won’t stop ringing,” Settle said. “The texts won’t stop coming.”

The attention was surprising, and mostly good, Settle said. That said, it’s been hard to read some comments on Facebook.

People — who likely haven’t bothered to read the backstory — have chastised Settle and wife Kelen for putting up a billboard for their newborn. Others have taken potshots at Carter’s name.

“It seems to me people have way too much time on their hands to be able to write negative stuff about a ... baby’s name,” Will Settle said. “Whether it (should be) a boy’s or a girl’s name.”

He suggested to his wife that they stop reading such comments.

On Friday morning, he was trying to figure out if he had time to do a TV interview.

“It’s a very neat story to be able to tell her, that she was on a billboard and on the news,” he said.

“And I think we look forward to being able to tell her about it one day.”

This story was originally published July 7, 2017 at 11:17 AM with the headline "This trending Bluffton baby gets TV time on Good Morning America & CNN."