SerpentVenom

Generally, good newspaper editors know that you don't run a story about a plane crash and then place an ad for the involved airline adjacent to the story. Shouldn't news website producers exercise the same good judgment? Today's sfgate home page features an ad for Cost Plus that integrates the ad placement in the side column with the whole background of the page. The problem with the ad is that it leads to the incongruity of a cheery image juxtaposed against the lead image on the page as seen below.

I'm specifically referring to the story about the tragic discovery of 8-year-old Sandra Cantu's body that is prominently placed in the story carousel. Is it really appropriate to promote being a better bunny in light of such a tragedy? Do you think Cost Plus wants their message mixed with that kind of tragedy?

Granted, Cost Plus probably paid for the ad placement well in advance and can't control what stories will appear at any point in the day. But surely the site producers could take the ad down until the feature stories change, or at least tone it down a bit by removing the huge background portion of the ad. They could always make good with Cost Plus by extending the time the ad is supposed to run to the next day. That's what they do in radio and television when programming supersedes scheduled ad spots.

Posted under Caught in the Web on Tuesday, April 7th, 2009 at 10:36

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