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.
Departing Boston Bruins bruiser Milan Lucic sent a farewell note to Hub hockey fans in today’s Boston Globe.
The Bruins traded Lucic to the Los Angeles Kings last month for backup goaltender Martin Jones, defensive prospect Colin Miller, and the 13th pick in the 2015 draft. According to this piece by Sebastian Noren of Today’s Slapshot, the Kings have big plans for Lucic.
From all the talk that we’ve heard and read since the trade took place, Lucic will join Anze Kopitar and Marian Gaborik on the top line for the Kings. Having a wrecking ball like Lucic (that also has a knack for scoring goals) next to a playmaker of Kopitar’s caliber and a sniper like Gaborik could be a recipe for success.
In his Globe ad, Lucic thanked multiple people for his success here.
But apparently the people of Boston don’t include the Herald’s readers. No ad for the thirsty local tabloid. Again.
It’s tough playing the game shorthanded this much, yeah?
As the hardreading staff has noted on two occasions, the Boston Herald’s weekly Gretta Style column – written by fashion butterfly Gretta Monahan – is little more than free advertising space for Monahan’s retail store and hair salon. The problem is, it’s dressed up like editorial content.
Today’s edition:
And where would one go to seek proper hydration? To Grettacole Salon and Day Spa, of course, which gets two plugs in the piece. (This, by the way, is the third week in a row Grettasomething is the solution for all your fashion/beauty needs.)
As we previously mused, one of three scenarios is likely involved here:
1) The Herald is paying Monahan to produce these features, which is a crime against common sense.
2) Monahan is paying the Herald to produce these features, which is a crime against journalistic ethics.
3) No money is changing hands, which is a crime against Herald readers.
To discern which option is at play, we called Ms. Monahan and emailed Herald Lifestyle Editor Sandra Kent to ask two simple questions: Are there guidelines for how often Gretta Monahan can feature her store and/or salon in the column? And, is Gretta Monahan paid for producing the weekly column?
We have heard back from neither. Nor do we expect to. But the selfie local tabloid should really stop pimping out its pages this way.
Back story, via the Boston Globe‘s Stephanie Ebbert.
Salesman Brown pursues a weight-loss constituency
It was not the sight of their former senator bare-chested that shocked Scott Brown’s Facebook followers.
They were used to that.
It was the sales pitch accompanying the before-and-after photos of his physique, crediting his recent, dramatic weight loss to a commercial nutrition and fitness plan.
Brown’s testament to the merits of AdvoCare’s “24-day challenge” was met with so many guffaws that within two hours, he posted another note, saying he is not a paid spokesman for the supplement company.
What he didn’t explain is that he’s a salesman.
Except he’s not, according to Brown’s wife Gail Huff.
The wife of former Massachusetts U.S. Sen. Scott Brown leaped to his defense yesterday, saying her husband was never a salesman for a controversial diet program, never intended to sell it and was only listed as a distributor of AdvoCare in order to get a 20 percent discount.
“He was never a salesman, he never made a penny from it,” Gail Huff told the Track. “At no point did he ever suggest anyone ever purchase it. He is not selling diet pills.”
That’s actually correct. Scott Brown is not selling diet pills – he’s selling diet pill distributorships.
At least according to The Daily Beast’s Olivia Nuzzi, who got this response when she asked Brown for an interview about AdvoCare.
“Olivia … Thanks for emailing me about your interest in Advocare . . . I am here to help you get started. As you can see from my story and pictures, these products from Advocare really do work.”
Further, Nuzzi wrote:
Brown is offering me the following: “20-40% off products” if I become an AdvoCare distributor; “Nutrition and Fitness guidance to maximize your results”; and “product regimens to help you reach your goals.”
Not to get technical about it, but Nuzzi’s only goal was to expose Scott Brown as a cheap grifter. Which he sorta seems to be.
Exhibit Umpteen:
I asked Brown if he had ever experienced any side effects while taking the product, and he responded, “Not at all I’ve been taking the products with Advocare for 10 years and they have treated me great. Thanks.”
10 years? On Facebook and in his email advertisement, Brown said he had been introduced to the products recently and they are what caused his weight loss.
“Keith has been taking them for 10 years through his baseball career,” Brown said when I told him his response didn’t match the rest of his story. “He turned them on to me a few months ago. Thanks.”
As the hardreading staff noted last week, the Boston Herald is plumbing new depths of journalistic malpractice with its weekly Gretta Style column, in which fashion butterfly Gretta Monahan gets to plug her retail store and her hair salon.
And as we promised, we contacted both the selfie local tabloid and Herself for comment. (We waited until yesterday because, really, how stupid is it to contact anyone on July 3rd?)
And . . . nothing.
Curious, because our email to Herald Lifestyle Editor Sandra Kent seems innocuous enough.
Dear Ms. Kent,
[We are] the author of the blog It’s Good to Live in a Two-Daily Town. [We’re] hoping you might give [us] some information about the weekly Gretta Style column in the Herald.
Are there guidelines for how often Gretta Monahan can feature her store and/or salon?
Is Gretta Monahan paid for producing the weekly column?
Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
[The Hardreading Staff]
Likewise, we left a message for Ms. Monahan asking for an interview.
As the hardreading staff has relentlessly chronicled, the Boston Herald is excessively adept at promoting itself in the guise of news reporting. But the selfie local tabloid is blazing new trails in its weekly Gretta Style features.
As for what to wear, I’m all about Barbara Biu’s metallic slides ($340) paired with a Lemlem patio dress ($245), both of which you’ll find on shelves at Grettaluxe in Wellesley now . . .
And as an ode to the holiday, make sure to bring Chloe’s red, small Faye bag ($1,390, also at Grettaluxe), a perfect summer statement to match the fiery show.
Oh, yeah – don’t forget the photo caption:
So, to recap: This particular Gretta Style feature is all about Gretta Monahan’s Grettaluxe store in Wellesley.
On the other hand, last week’s feature was all about Gretta Monahan’s Grettacole hair salon in Copley Square.
Drive you nuts graf:
So, to recap again: The Boston Herald is giving over its news pages to Gretta Monahan every week so she can promote her various enterprises.
Inevitable conclusions:
1) The Herald is paying Monahan to produce these features, which is a crime against common sense.
2) Monahan is paying the Herald to produce these features, which is a crime against journalistic ethics.
3) No money is changing hands, which is a crime against Herald readers.
The headscratching staff will make some phone calls today to sort out those options, but we don’t expect anyone will talk to us.
After 19 years as president and CEO of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, Paul Guzzi is stepping down. As a sort of parting gift, he ran this full-page ad in today’s Boston Herald.
Crosstown at the Boston Globe – no ad. Then again, why pay for what the Globe will provide for free. Bottom of today’s Business front:
Top of C2:
Guzzi is moving on the become board chairman at the Citi Performing Arts Center, where he’ll undoubtedly run many more ads in the stately local broadsheet than the thirsty local tabloid.
The hardreading staff has a track record of being, well, hard on the selfie local tabloid. But we also believe in giving credit where credit’s due.
So, from Sunday’s Boston Herald, which is read by up to several people.
The Associated Press Media Editors announced its awards earlier this month. Oddly, the only category without a winner was the aforementioned Innovator of the Year.
Maybe it’s still TBA. If so, we’re sure the finalist local tabloid will let u know.
As you splendid readers might (or probably don’t) remember, the hardreading staff a couple of days ago (people everywhere: please note the of) detailed the advertising efforts of two front groups for energy concerns: one natural gas, the other nuclear power.
Diligent as always, we wrote to both mouthpieces for more information.
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?
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It's Good to Live in a Two-Daily Town 