A new low in newspaper advertising...

I was traveling down Adyar bridge recently and happened to notice a huge billboard of a scantily clad female wearing a bit-n-pieces T-shirt. The writing on the T-Shirt said ‘Institute reveals vital statistics’ printed across the shirt. And for a while I couldn’t find what this brand being advertised was. Cosmopolitan? Stardust? And then, I noticed it… A small print revealing the name of the brand – Deccan Chronicle. Surprise, surprise!! I never really had a very high opinion of this newspaper, but never considered it that cheap either.

Why would a newspaper advertise itself in such a manner? And what were they trying to position themselves as? A newspaper, that provides enough eye-candy for the bored teenagers? Or a magazine, which provides some daily news? Either way, I don’t see how it made sense. Majority of the people subscribing for newspapers and reading them are the middle-aged people. A younger guy might either just check the news on the net or Google whatever takes his fancy at the moment. And in any case there are a lot many avenues for eye-candy other than the daily newspaper. And a more serious youngster would actually prefer a more serious newspaper.

Luckily, better sense prevailed and the next time I passed the bridge, the advertisement had been replaced by a surprisingly witty one. One, in which the letters A.D. were in the first line and B.C. were in the line below. And so if you read vertically, you’d have D.C. And with the caption, ‘Sometimes two letters can denote a generation’. Very smart advertising, but not before they touched a new low in newspaper advertising.