PressEthic

I hate “special advertising sections” in magazines – mostly because I end up reading the first page without realizing that it’s an advertisement and I resent being sneaked-up on.

I was reading through the October 10th issue of Newsweek last week and ran into a special advertising section on Fall Health that just wouldn’t end. It contained 25 pages of ads for health insurance, Quaker oatmeal, Nexium, and Transitions Lenses. Through out the sections were articles that went along with the advertisers products.

This floored me! Newsweek couldn’t just have a section on health; they had to hire writers to write articles based on their advertisers.

Here’s an example. Beth Howard wrote an article titled “Living Well With Arthritis” that connected with the full-page ad for Aleve on the opposite page. Meryl Daivds Landau wrote a piece called “Open Wide” on dentists that sat opposite an ad for Crest Sonicare. I understand strategic article placement but this is ridiculous!

Had the section not been labeled “Special Advertising Section” maybe I would have actually read some of the articles, but it was just too much for me. Had the special advertising section been a pamphlet included in the magazine and not actually attached I’d feel much better. But don’t expect me to submit myself to your overtly obvious subliminal messaging.