Charles Apple

Readers of the Los Angeles Times picked up their papers today, only to find Johnny Depp peering at them from the top of the fold of page one:

It’s a wrap, of course. When readers turn the page, they see the true page one. Note the ad — for the same movie — across the bottom of the page:

A press release from the Times seems to suggest that this is something new:

The Los Angeles Times breaks new ground today, translating the “homepage” take-over concept from the Web to print and deliver Disney’s Mad Hatter to readers’s doorsteps, driveways and city street corners.

But, of course, it isn’t. Just last month, two papers in Vancover, Canada, ran ads that wrapped around page one on the day the Winter Olympics opened:

Spadea ads have wrapped around the front of the Virginian-Pilot and the Chicago Tribune. I’ve blogged about obtrusive ads on A1 and the rest of the paper here and here and here and here and here.

And, of course, who can forget this somewhat questionable ad venture just 11 months ago, on page one of the Los Angeles Times itself?:

The press release continues:

“The Times is thrilled to work with Disney to create a truly exceptional and distinctive way in which to let L.A. know Alice in Wonderland is now in theatres,” said John T. O’Loughlin, Executive Vice President, Advertising and Chief Revenue Office [of the L.A. Times]. “We knew this was an unusual opportunity to stretch traditional boundaries and deliver an innovative ad unit designed to create buzz … and further extend the film’s brilliant marketing campaign.”

Read the press release here.

Go here for a column about this by Sharon Waxman of the Hollywood Wrap.

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UPDATE: Monday, March 8, 3:30 p.m.

Richard Pérez-Pena of the New York Times today reported a few more aspects to this story…

Pérez-Pina reports:

The top editor of The Times, Russ Stanton, and several of his deputies vigorously opposed the ad before it was published, but they were overruled by the paper’s business executives, according to people with direct knowledge of the dispute, who were granted anonymity to discuss private conversations.

Mr. Stanton said only, “Obviously, it was not my decision.”

Pérez-Pina also reports that last July — not long after the infamous Southland front-page ad — the Times ran an ad for the HBO series True Blood that wrapped around the paper. The difference then was: The ad didn’t include the Times logo at the top.

The Times story also included a look at the entire ad, which we didn’t have before:

Find the NYT story here.

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UPDATE: Monday, March 8, 9 p.m.

Heh. First of all, here’s the First Blood wrap ad from last summer. You’ll note that it does indeed have the nameplate across the top:

Here’s a story published at the time in the Huffington Post about the ad.

And Sharon Waxman of the Wrap reports today that the Times sold the Depp wrap ad for $700,000.

This entry was posted on Friday, March 5th, 2010 at 2:49 pm and is filed under Industry woes, News design, Visual ethics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.