Bad Layout. Really Bad.

I'm sure it was an honest mistake, but I think they might consider an apology in the corrections area.

 

Geez, that's terrible. I get that some ads may not show up on pages during design, with only a code, but no one in the pre-press or press room could have said "NO!" and stopped it?

 

You can't buy that kind of publicity.

And Free Parking!

 

Just curious: Which paper did this?

 

The Advocate in Stamford.

 

These things happen all the time.

Lots of examples, including this one: http://apple.copydesk.org/category/visual-journalism/odd-juxtaposition/

 

It does make you wince a little bit, but if you look at the ad closely, it's not quite as bad as it appears. I'm guessing this show is a fairly big deal, and it is dealing more with collectibles and antiques than your average run of the mill gun and knife show. They probably would have been better served running another story on that page, but I don't know that it's a firing offense.

 

I remember seeing a page in my former paper that had the Clarence Thomas hearings wrapped around an ad for women's underwear. But the best example of this was on TV, when a detergent commercial featured the word "Stain!" sung to the tune of "Fame!" This during the Barbara Walters interview with Monica Lewinsky.

 

It could be the paginator didn't even know what ad was running there.

A lot of papers I've worked at, including my current one, put an image box on their dummy pages where the ad's supposed to go, and the ad is imported after the page is sent back to composing. The ad could've been slugged something innocuous, like "East Coast Fine." So the paginator could have had no idea.

We've had ad people make us look stupid before.

 

Yep. Lots of communication in the communication field. I would bet no one saw or noticed until well after the presses were running.

Even so, if anyone's got reason to be upset, it would be the advertiser.

 

I've had this kind of thing happen to me before when laying out pages, but never in such horrific fashion.

My question is, who thought Elmo would be an apprpriate way to welcome the kids back to school considering Elmo's current standing. Were there no Whinnie the Poohs or Kermit the Frogs?