Oh no, it wasn't the aeroplanes. It was Beauty killed the Beast.
Want a smile? Take a look at this front page of the Dayton Daily News. (Via Romenesko.) Commenters at the News Designer site don't much care for it. It's over the top. It's nothing but a front page ad for the movie. It's bad design. Heck, the ape's hands don't even match the rest of the body.
No, the commenters don't care for it at all.
On the other hand, is it compelling? Yes. Did it attract people who don't read papers to pick up the paper that day? Don't know but I'd bet money it did. Can you see a Time or a Rolling Stone or a New Yorker designed in this style? Absolutely....except they wouldn't waste as much of the space on words in small type.
Would we do it? Not with King Kong because it takes a giant step over the line into using the front page to promote a movie. Heck, if you do it for Kong, what do you do for the next Harry Potter movie? (Now, if it were Jon Bon Jovi of "National Lampoon's The Trouble with Frank," that's another question.)
Seriously, if it were a story with some gravitas and strong art? I think we'd consider it.
Should we?
Comments (3)
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I didn't find it offensive - and the news stand sales probably resulted in a bunch of empty boxes.
I agree with the commenter who said, "The design, if it is not an ad, at least shows a boldness and a "thinking outside the box" all too infrequently shown by the generally conformist, copycat media. Whether you like the ape or not and whether it was successful or not, the Dayton Daily News took a chance on a bold design -- and in the declining print media market, why not take a chance?"
Just leave such "bold designs" off of the online edition and go ahead and sell some papers.
Posted on December 15, 2005 8:57 PM
Sure, we should. But we should do it better than that. (And we would do it better than that.)
Posted on December 16, 2005 11:39 AM
The artist who did it said single-copy sales went up.
I think it was an interesting idea, poorly executed.
Posted on December 18, 2005 1:33 PM