By: Joel Davis Some newspapers have used "dino-mite" for revenue boosts during the dog days of summer -- but others have refused to bite.
A number of dailies ran groundbreaking ads purchased by Universal Pictures promoting "Jurassic Park III" that had the film's logo, a silhouette of a flying pteranodon, superimposed over editorial copy -- from movie listings to stock listings. Now, the number of papers running the ads has grown to 15, including the
Los Angeles Times, but about 10 others have declined.
The New York Times and
The San Diego Union-Tribune are the biggest papers that declined.
Universal spokeswoman Terry Curtin said some papers "were concerned about the church-and-state issue" of blurring the line between advertising and editorial, and wanted more time to think it over. But the papers that declined, she said, cited a lack of time to ponder the logistics of the short-notice offer.
Surprisingly, "none declined [outright] based on the ethical issue," she said, adding that the two jointly operated Denver dailies,
The Denver Post and the
Rocky Mountain News, actually sought the ads without being solicited, but missed the deadline.
Universal is planning future employment of this "clutter buster" concept whenever it can use a well-known logo or image. Said Curtin, "Any time we can identify a fresh way of getting a message across, where it will get noticed, we make that attempt."
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