The Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News ran a fake ad campaign within their Friday editions to "demonstrate the power of our brands in generating awareness and generating traffic for our advertisers, and put a smile on people's faces."
According to Philly.com the Friday editions contained blue banners throughout the papers , as well as on their Web site, Philly.com, Derrie-Air cheerily trumpets its policy: The more you weigh, the more you pay. The ads direct readers to the Web site http://www.flyderrie-air.com.
Visitors who scroll to the bottom of Flyderrie-air.com see a disclaimer that reads, "The Derrie-Air campaign is a fictitious advertising campaign created by Philadelphia Media Holdings to test the results of advertising in our print and online products and to stimulate discussion on a timely environmental topic of interest to all citizens."Quoted in an Editor and Publisher article, Bob Steele, the Nelson Poynter Scholar for Journalism Values at The Poynter Institute said "It is clearly deception. Newspapers should not be in the business of deception. I can’t imagine the Inquirer and Daily News would run fake ads from other companies."
In the same article Kelly McBride, Poynter ethics group leader, said, "Market research is a good goal in terms of understanding how advertising is going to work in this era. I wonder if there is a way to do that that doesn't deceive the audience. Is there something you could create that could measure responses without tricking the audience?"
Discussion
By Dr Joe Webb on Jun 11, 2008
I thought the real fake ads were from the real airlines that claimed you would enjoy your flight and arrive on time.
Southwest already knows the power of the Internet and truth in advertising, and did it in a print ad last week. The ad, appearing in the Wall Street Journal, was a masterful stroke of differentiation. It focuses on attributes of competitors that those competitors would be unwilling or unable to change, taking advantage of the new fees that some airlines are beginning to charge. The ad also touches the aggravation that travelers feel when dealing with airlines, an excellent example of positioning as espoused by the developers of the concept Jack Trout and Al Ries in the 1970s.
A PDF of the ad can be downloaded at http://www.mediafire.com/?nygmbng0iij
As far as the ethics of Philly.com, it could have been done with real ads. The ethics are not an issue for me: you've wasted people's time and undermined their site visit. You just have to hope that the chuckle made them forgive you, and then forget it. I could see it if it was 1997 and this was still "new." It's not. There's plenty of data to support what they ultimately found out. I wonder if this was an internal battle over effectiveness and someone was trying to prove their point.
By David Mueller on Jun 11, 2008
Can't we just lighten up and stop being offened at every little thing?
By Paul Edwards on Jun 11, 2008
Which answer applies?
A.) Last dying gasp of a printed newspaper
B.) The luffa pad was the highlight
C.) Frank Romano was the ghost writer
D.) If actually is a real airline
Discussion
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