One week after the stunning Super Bowl win by the New England Patriots, the Boston Globe has published its obligatory Special Commemorative Section.
The 26-page celebration of all things Pats is chockablock with advertising such as this ad from Marty Walsh & the People of Boston, which features so many logos you’d think Walsh was Mayor of NASCAR.
All told, there are five full-page ads in the section (everyone from Bob’s Discount Furniture to TAG Heuer) and ten half-page ads (ranging from Tostitos to Rutgers Football). An adstravaganza, in other words.
Crosstown at the Boston Herald, meanwhile, there’s no special section, just the regular Sunday Sports.
The not-so-special section features just four Pats-related ads, starting with this must-have.
There are also ads for a New England Patriots Super Bowl LI Commemorative Fan Ring, the New England Patriots Super Bowl 51 Champions Legacy Decanter Set, and the First-Ever Tom Brady Gold Dollar.
Collect them all! Trade them with your friends!
And feel just a little bad for the thirsty local tabloid.
The Boston Herald has long been the venue of last resort for full-page ads of the advocacy/corporate image/memorial sort.
As it was yesterday, when the Herald was bypassed by two ads that ran in the Boston Globe.
First, this Boston suck-up ad from GE (which in this town stands for Got Everything.)
Then, this Boston Ad Club full-page backpat honoring diversity in a town that has long hampered diversity.
(To be fair graf goes here)
To be fair, yesterday’s Herald did feature this full-page bank ad.
As well as this half-page Massachusetts tax amnesty ad.
Neither of which ran in yesterday’s Globe.
Still, there’s no question that the Herald is an afterthought in the eyes of local advertisers.
Which makes it all the more interesting that the feisty local tabloid seems to enjoy better fiscal fitness than the stately local broadsheet, which is now desperately downsizing (tip o’ the pixel to the redoubtable Dan Kennedy at Media Nation) as it moves from its sprawling Morrissey Boulevard home to cramped quarters in Boston’s financial district.
As the hardreading staff has previously noted, telecom giant Verizon has been wallpapering the Boston Globe (but not the Boston Herald) with this full-page ad questioning why union workers are striking over cuts in healthcare and pension benefits.
Yesterday, Verizon doubled down with two ads in the $tately local broadsheet: The one above, and this one.
And the response from the striking Communications Workers of America/International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers?
As the hardreading staff has repeatedly pointed out, the Boston Herald rarely gets any love from groups or individuals running full-page advocacy or tribute ads, virtually all of which wind up exclusively in the Boston Globe.
Exhibit Umpteen, from today’s edition:
Copy close-up:
Ad sponsor AJC Boston apparently doesn’t believe that Herald readers are interested in 57 municipal leaders “[taking] a stand and [speaking] out against an ancient hatred that once again is raging in places around the globe.”
So once again the thirsty local tabloid goes without.
As you splendid readers no doubt already know, Massachusetts General Hospital has topped this year’s U.S. News and World Report rankings after being relegated to second place for the past two years.
Now that Mass General has been restored to its former glory, it’s all over but the touting. Joining in the celebration is this full-page ad in today’s Boston Globe.
Crosstown at the Boston Herald, no love from the Kraft Family. But the Herald did have this quarter-page ad exclusive.
Of course, the Herald is one of the sponsors, so the ad – like the concerts – is free.
Hey, can’t have everything. Or in the case of the thirsty local tabloid, much of anything.
As the hardreading staff noted yesterday, the Boston Herald continues to be the wallflower at the local advertising dance.
Except today.
Lo and behold, occupying the entirety of page 9 was this ad, paid for by some outfit called the Coalition to Lower Energy Costs.
Curious as always, we hied ourselves to the group’s website, which says this about the coalition:
The Coalition to Lower Energy Costs is a non-profit Massachusetts association of individual consumers, labor unions, larger energy consumers and institutions concerned about the threat to New England’s families and economy from skyrocketing natural gas and electric prices. The coalition advocates for the new infrastructure we need to give all of us access to an adequate natural gas supply and lower our energy cost. This will require substantial new pipeline capacity, including one new pipeline from western Massachusetts to Dracut.
Huh. We kind of assumed some natural gas companies might be involved. They could, of course, be those “institutions concerned about the threat to New England’s families and economy from skyrocketing natural gas and electric prices” the website mentions. The About Us page doesn’t say.
But WMUR’s redoubtable John DiStaso doesin this piece.
Pro-gas pipeline group makes regional push with new TV ad
Coalition to Lower Energy cost has ties to Kinder Morgan energy firm
MANCHESTER, N.H. —A group with ties to the proponents of the Northeast Energy Direct pipeline, proposed by the Kinder Morgan energy company, has begun advertising on WMUR and other television stations in New England.
The Coalition to Lower Energy Costs has purchased time to air an ad 30 times over two weeks on the New Hampshire’s largest television station at a cost of more than $70,000.
Anthony Buxton, a Maine-based attorney who is a leader of the coalition and also represents Kinder Morgan in a Maine Public Utilities Commission proceeding, said plans call for the ad to air for a total of about three weeks on WMUR. He said it will also air on another New Hampshire television station, as well as two Maine stations and “several stations in Boston,” at a total cost of “several hundred thousand dollars.”
Here’s the spot:
So, mystery solved, yes? Well, no. Why run the print ad in the Herald but not the Boston Globe? Intrepid as ever, we’re sending an email to the coalition to ask.
Wanna know something else that’s strange? A different energy group – Nuclear Matters (you can read about them here) – ran this full-page ad 0n A11 in today’s Globe.
But that’s not the strange part. The strange part is the same ad ran on A13.
Huh? We’re sending them an email too.
P.S. The Nuclear Matters ad also ran in the Herald. Good day for the firsty local tabloid, eh?
Local shoemaker New Balance yesterday saluted “each and every police officer, firefighter, first responder and service man & woman” in this full-page ad that ran in both – say it again, both – Boston dailies.
Truth to tell, the ad also ran in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.
But as the Heraldnix might say, why get technical about it.
The Boston Herald is a three-time loser in the advertising department today. Once again, the Boston Globe scoops up all the good ads, starting with this one from the new nonsmoking CVS.
(The Herald has a news story about the chain’s move, but that’s all.)
Also in the stately local broadsheet, this media culpa from Neiman Marcus:
Here’s a slightly more readable version:
The hardsquinting staff gets why Neiman’s wouldn’t run that – or any – ad in the Herald. But CVS? What – only smokers read the Herald?
Regardless, this Puffs ad doesn’t soften the blow any either.
The feisty local tabloid, no doubt, is reaching for the Kleenex.
As the hard reading staff has noted on numerous occasions, it’s normally the Boston Herald that gets shortchanged in the full-page-ad department, especially in terms of advocacy ads.
But not today.
Page 11:
The outfit that funded the ad, Alzheimer’s Impact Movement, describes itself as “a nonpartisan, nonprofit advocacy organization working in strategic partnership with the Alzheimer’s Association to make Alzheimer’s disease a national priority.”
Regardless, here’s another thing today’s Herald has that the Globe doesn’t: coverage of Chet Curtis’s wake yesterday.
Nice coverage, unfortunate photos.
Finally, the Herald has also cornered the market on Romney Redux reporting, with the normally level-headed Kimberly Atkins speculating that two-time presidential loser Mitt Romney might go for the hat trick.
Oy.
So the feisty local tabloid goes two-for-three today. Better than average, yes?
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It's Good to Live in a Two-Daily Town 