Above the Fold

By now it's either under the dog in the corner, or put out with the recycling, but Disney recently paid the L.A. Times about $700,000 to put a false front page with an advertisement for the film Alice in Wonderland over the actual front page of the newspaper. An advertisement in a newspaper is not abnormal, but putting it on the front page, and allowing it to look like an actual front page, seems to have crossed a line. The critical outcry is telling. It suggests that consumers and citizens feel a sense of ownership over a newspaper's front page, or at least a sense of expectatoins about its proper use. Some would argue that a manufacturer can configure their product in any way they choose. Then consumers can either buy it or reject it. Not true, it appears. Now a trust has been violated. What's more, by making the advertisement appear to be an actual front page with the Mad Hatter character superimposed, readers were at least momentarily duped. So readers are disrepected. Art (and marketing) prevail.