Posted by
Ed Lilly on Saturday, April 19, 2008 10:08:28 AM
Over some eggs and bacon this morning, I took a few minutes to do a preview flip-through of the most recent Money magazine that came in the mail recently. I wasn't very far into the magazine when I laughed out loud at one of the ads. Not because the ad itself was intentionally funny. But because of an unintended consequence of the effect of the ad from the previous page on the ad I was looking at.
A few pages after the table of contents and index information, T. Rowe Price had a two page spread advertising its mutual funds. Included with the ad was a tear-out postcard to fill out and send in if you want further information. Pretty standard magazine stuff, right?
Of course, the tear-out postcard is made from heavier stock than the pages of the magazine, and was attached to a small strip of heavy stock from which it is to be separated. The effect of this is to leave a small, heavy piece of paper stock in the binding of the magazine, which means the magazine page itself doesn't open quite as far as it would without the heavy stock blocking at least a portion of the page.
Big deal, how much can that really matter, right?
Not a whole lot. But on the subsequent right hand page was an ad for another investment firm. And because of the way their ad was laid out, when the page was turned with the card stock in place, there was one letter that disappeared from the ad unless you pried the magazine open to see the complete headline. Here's the headline they wanted the reader to see:
JANUS RESEARCH MEANS GETTING MORE THAN YOUR HANDS DIRTY
Guess which letter couldn't be seen due to the card stock?
I wonder if the folks at Janus will get any kind of discount on future ads, or perhaps make sure that their ads are placed differently to avoid the humorous blip in Money.