What does this look like?
...
If you answered, "Front page of the Los Angeles Times" or "Weirdly-designed news page," you would be wrong. Sorry.
It's actually an advertisement, parading as a front page. The entire front page of the Los Angeles Times is wrapped by this ad spread. But the new episode of "Law & Order" is not the main attraction of this page; notice the big "news" story. The headline is "Media icon hit by crime wave."
There was no crime wave. The news was not news at all. It was just a sensational, pseudo story to attract attention to the advertisement (which was no doubt purchased with a lofty price).
Only after picking up the paper and opening to page two could a reader see the real news of the day. And the only clue the artist of this cleverly-designed page gave to the spread's true intentions was a small note at the top of the page, above the headline: advertisement.
The Times has done this before, and they are not the only paper to have tried the ad-dressed-up-like-a-front scheme. But the writing and design of this particular September spread was intended to fool. The paper appears to be in dire need of a sale.
Is this an ethical move? Clearly page design has the power to fool. But should it? Will the paper lose future credibility?
The LA Times received mixed reviews. Readers were not happy with the slight of design. But the design did what the creative masterminds set out to do — sell papers. And this is a clear testament to the hard-up nature of newspapers.
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