Friday, July 08, 2005

London bombings

I heard about this story late morning yesterday and couldn't think of anything intelligent to say about it then, so call me a little behind the times.

I was on the subway on my way to work this morning and decided to pick up copies of Metro and Dose - I didn't get a 24 - to see what the free dailies spin on the whole situation was.

Metro, as usual, reported lots of snippets, the usual reactions, pictures, numbers, etc. Dose's coverage was much more compelling, and included write ups and interviews with people - assumedly personal friends and contacts - who were actually in London near the bomb sites. I was amazed at the depth of Dose's coverage of the tragedy up to page 7, where the words "Premature Ejaculation" boldly stood out in an ad on the bottom right corner of the page.

Because of Dose's blocky greyscale layout, the ad looks like part of the editorial. Firstly, bad, bad production layout. I don't care if they paid premium for placement, you just DON'T put an ad for erectile dysfunction on the same page as world wide tragedy. Secondly, BAD, BAD PRODUCTION LAYOUT. Were they even paying attention when they placed that thing? Okay, sure, dailies have high-stress deadlines to adhere to, and Dose is bare a year old, but C'MON!

No comments: