Years ago, I was working for a newspaper, and someone brought in what we called the pre-prints (which were printed earlier in the week).
I opened an inside page, and an advertisement in giant type jumped out at me. There were six words in the ad, three on each page. You'd read from left to right, so you were switching back and forth from page to page.
If you read the whole ad, it was pretty innocuous. If you read just the left page from top to bottom, it looked like a sexual comment or suggestion.
I told someone on news side, and they called the ad director at home. He laughed -- he saw some humor in it -- and said that there was nothing he could do. He later showed the advertiser, who turned red, I heard.
They changed the ad before they ran it again. Several people wanted to cut out that left-hand page and put it on the wall of their cubicles, but I understand that was quickly quashed.
The moral? Yes, they could have used an editor.
More editing/writing blog entries
Blog entries on The Auto Racing Journal:
(a book of great stories about the Intimidator)
(the book of great NASCAR stories)
More blog entries by Tom Gillispie
Anecdotes by Tom Gillispie
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