Friday, March 19, 2010

Cincy | When an advertisement crosses the line

"The ad was outrageous."

-- A spokesman for Ohio Congressman Steve Driehaus, referring to an ad in Wednesday's Cincinnati Enquirer by a group that wants Driehaus to vote no on the current healthcare bill. The ad featured a photo of the congressman and his two young daughters -- a photo the Enquirer concluded should never have been published; the paper published a full-page apology yesterday.

8 comments:

  1. Classy? More like CYA in a litigious society. Also worth noting, the Congressman's last name was misspelled in the second reference within the ad copy.

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  2. Someone should have known better. Ads that can potentially put children in harm's way should never appear anywhere.

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  3. Was that a 2AdPro ad? Or a GPC winner?

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  4. Did they have to give the money back to the people who ran the original ad? Morally or ethically, if you disparage your advertiser the next day you've provided them with less value than promised.

    HA! Morals and ethics. Excuse me while I go grab some Chiquita bananas....

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  5. Good enough is good enough.

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  6. Publisher Buchanan sure hung the advertising veep Hahn out to dry. They're accepting any money they can get. Last week they ran a front-page ad from the fake Antiques Roadshow promoters. What next?

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  7. I don't know anything about ads and what's allowed ethically, legally or otherwise. Does the publisher have any responsibility or liability when it comes to bogus ads? If they don't, then why are publishers even needed? Who is ultimately responsible when ads go wrong, I guess, is what I'm asking.

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  8. Why are publishers even needed, you ask? They're not at most of the Wisconsin newspapers. They canned the publishers and dumped the work on the already overworked executive editors, and changed their titles to general manager.

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