• by June 3, 2005

WHO KNOWS WHAT EVIL LURKS IN THE HEARTS OF AD MEN? -- Apparently, the shadow knows. No, not the old-time radio program, but the new-time newspaper advertising technique that's causing a stir within the print medium and a rift between church and state. If you haven't seen them yet, you may soon. Over the past few weeks newspaper insert giant Valassis began querying local newspapers on whether they would be willing to accept the controversial new ads, which subtly "watermark" an advertising image, or brand icon directly onto editorial content.

It's unclear how many papers ultimately plan to accept the ads, but they represent another tear in the fabric separating editorial advertising content. They also represent yet another attempt by Madison Avenue to circumvent consumer avoidance of advertising messages by forcing ads into places they might not otherwise want to see them.

Of course, online users are used to such intrusions, but have ultimately figured out ways around many forms of pop-ups, -unders, and every-which-way-arounds. But that's not preventing advertisers, agencies and marketers from finding new ways to assault consumers. When it became apparent that ad-skipping via digital video recorders were becoming a meaningful threat to TV commercial exposure, TiVo came up with ways of superimposing ads while TiVo users are zipping through ads, and media buying giant OMD has begun testing what it describes as "fast-forward commercials."

To be sure, some of these approaches may be creative innovations, and may actually enhance the consumer media experience, but the industry has to go slow and use caution, lest it replace one form of consumer frustration (static advertising clutter) with another (cluttered editorial/programming content). If that were to happen, everyone would lose.

But it's not simply the tune out of advertising messages that should worry the newspaper industry about its move into the shadows. It's the potential for consumers to tune out editorial credibility. Coming at a time when confidence in major news organizations already is beginning to ebb, the last thing newspapers need is to raise new questions about the veracity of their news coverage.

The development already has caused some "angst" in newspaper newsrooms, John Kimball, head of marketing for the Newspaper Association of America told the Associated Press. "There are some issues to work out," he noted.

In fact, many top newspaper publishers are exploring the fine line between editorial and advertising content and are toying with new ad executions that could add to those issues. Tribune Co, for example, recently put in place new guidelines for its 11 major market newspapers stipulating when and where shadow ads can run, as well as other new types of ads that might pop up in unusual shapes and in odd places on a traditional newspaper page.

To date, most of the shadow ads have appeared only on editorial pages running so-called "agate type" - the kind that list stock quotes, sports stats and movie listings that most readers might not view as an editorial incursion.

But while fine print may seem fine, what happens when shadows start getting cast among the larger fonts?