In the biz, they’re called “house ads”: Ads that take up unsold space, and usually promoting that particular media outlet’s content, promos, et cetera. Then there are also “wishful thinking” ads — ads that are posted for clients that a paper or site wishes to have, whether it’s just about the money or the cool that comes with being associated with said product. (Points go to the first person who can spot the site in Philly posting fake American Apparel ads. Hint: The editor of the site in question used to routinely post Am-Ap ads as actual content with little or no comment, seemingly for his own frankly sad and off-putting masturbatory pleasure. Groan.) And then, there are good old fashioned, straight up, “fake ads”: Ads for products that do not exist at all, for the purpose of satire, spoof or, ahem, “market research.” Now, ideally, you don’t want house ads, wishful thinking ads or fake ads. You want real ads. Paid for with real money. And the timing just couldn’t be worse for Philadelphia Media Holdings, who decided to run a fake ad campaign for something called Derrie-Air within 18 hours of a story breaking about them missing a loan payment, which may or may not be true, but does real damage nonetheless. Because you have to ask yourself: What impresses a board of directors and loan officers most? Getting paid on time, or a fabulous ass-pun? Wait, don’t answer that.
Editor&Publisher: In French, It’s Still Pronounced “Ass”
Bloomberg: Talk About “Arrears”

This entry was posted on Friday, June 6th, 2008 at 1:36 pm.