February 4, 2024
From our Local Dailies DisADvantage desk
Former football coach Bill Belichick got lots of press coverage today for running this full-page ad on A3 of the Boston Sunday Globe.
Here’s the text, for those of you keeping score at home.
Nowhere in America are pro sports fans as passionate as in New England and for 24 years, I was blessed to feel your passion and power. The Patriots are the only NFL team representing SIX states but in reality, Patriots Nation knows no borders.
You were undaunted by weather, attended scorching hot training camp practices and braved Foxborough’s coldest, wettest, snowiest, and windiest days.
Your thoughtful letters offered support, critique, and creative play suggestions. You watched on TV, the Internet, and from your stadium seats.
You traveled from coast to coast and internationally. Numerous times, you overtook opposing stadiums and were the last fans standing. We loved it! You gave your precious time, resources, and energy to our team. We appreciated it!
Six times, you packed Boston by the millions for parades that were truly a two-way expression of gratitude and love. The images from those days are burned in my memory.
You may even have enjoyed my fashion sense and press conferences, or maybe you just tolerated them.
I loved coaching here and, together, we experienced some amazing moments.
THANK YOU ALL.
With respect and admiration,
Bill Belichick
Know who Bill Belichick does not respect? The hardworking folks at the Boston Herald, whose ever-dwindling readership is just as passionate about and devoted to the New England Patriots as Boston Globe readers.
But once again the thirsty local tabloid gets stiffed by someone who thinks Boston is a one-daily town.
Bad form, Mr. Unemployed Hoodie. Very bad form indeed.
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Uncategorized | Tagged: Bill Belichick, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Local Dailies DisADvantage, Mr. Unemployed Hoodie, New England Patriots, thirsty local tabloid | 
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Posted by Campaign Outsider
September 15, 2022
From our Local Dailies DisADvantage desk
Fact of life: The Boston Globe is always going to garner far more advocacy/corporate image/memorial full-page advertising than the Boston Herald.
(To be sure graf goes here)
To be sure, we get why, say, Mass General Brigham last Sunday would run this double-truck only in the stately local broadsheet.
(There was also a third full-page ad that went with those two, which meant MGB spent some serious money. Then again, those U.S. News & World Report rankings have gone over like the metric system for quite a while now, so maybe not the wisest investment.)
For the life of us, though, the headscratching staff cannot understand why this full-page ad ran in today’s Globe but not today’s Herald.
Hey – if even NFL telecasts ignore the thirsty local tabloid and treat Boston like a One-Daily Town, it just might become one.
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: Amazon Prime, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Local Dailies DisADvantage, Mass General Brigham, One-Daily Town, stately local broadsheet, thirsty local tabloid, Thursday Night Football | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
April 5, 2020
From our Local Dailies DisADvantage desk
As the hardreading staff has noted numerous times, the Boston Herald has long been the wallflower at the local advertising dance.
And so it remains in the time of coronavirus.
To be sure, Kappy’s Fine Wine & Spirits has been a loyal customer lately with full-page ads like this one.
And Stop & Shop ran this thank you ad today.
But that’s pretty much it for the thirsty local tabloid.
Crosstown at the Boston Globe, though (wait – that doesn’t work any more since the Globe moved to State Street and the Herald moved to Braintree and anyway everyone’s working remotely so the hell with it) – the full-page ads are coming fast and furious.
Yesterday there was this ad from the Veterans Cannabis Project urging Gov. Charlie Baker (R-Bogart) to designate all adult-use Massachusetts cannabis dispensaries as essential services.
Auto magnate Herb Chambers also went full-page yesterday.
Today is even better for the stately local broadsheet. It got the Chambers ad again and the Stop & Shop thank you ad. But today’s edition also features this Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts ad.
Body copy:
And this Uber ad.
Body copy:
Memo to Blue Cross and Uber: Maybe next time send some of that love to the Herald as well.
5 Comments | Uncategorized | Tagged: Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Charlie Baker, Herb Chambers, Kappy's Fine Wine & Spirits, Local Dailies DisADvantage, stately local broadsheet, Stop & Shop, thirsty local tabloid, Uber, Veterans Cannabis Project | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
October 4, 2018
Columbia Gas, which oversaw the destruction of roughly 80 homes; the death of Leonel Rondon, a student at Phoenix Charter Academy; over two dozen injuries; and the disruption of thousands of other lives, promises to restore service to Lawrence, Andover, and North Andover by November 19th.
But . . .
The company is also hedging its bets, as yesterday’s full-page Boston Globe ad from Columbia Gasbag Joe Hamrock indicates.
Nuts to deadlines graf.
Notice first that Columbia Gas is outsourcing part of its responsibility for the recovery to “local, state and federal officials and other dedicated people and organizations.”
Also notice that there’s no mention of the November 19th deadline.
Also also notice that the ad did not run in the Boston Herald, yet another example of Boston institutions overlooking the thirsty local tabloid.
No wonder we’re destined to be a One-Daily Town.
P.S. It’s entirely coincidental that this is the front page of today’s Herald
and this is Metro Page One of the Globe.
Entirely.
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: Boston Globe, Columbia Gas, Columbia Gasbag, gas explosion, Joe Hamrock, Leonel Rondon, Local Dailies DisADvantage, Merrimack Valley, One-Daily Town, Phoenix Charter Academy, thirsty local tabloid | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
July 13, 2018
From our Local Dailies DisADvantage desk
Who knew? It turns out the Olde Towne Team has an Official Red Wine, as readers of today’s Boston Globe discovered in this full-page ad.
The pitch:
Chateau Auguste certainly seems to be a hit with oenophiles: A quick check of the Googletron reveals that the 2017 Rosé featured in the ad rates from 3.4 to 4.5 stars; the 2015 Bordeaux in the background gets 4 stars. We’ll see how it plays at Fenway, though.
Two other things:
1) The ad got us to wondering who else might be an official sponsor of the Sox. We know – from all those delivery trucks – that W.B. Mason is the Official Office Products Supplier of the Boston Red Sox (and also sponsors the Philadelphia Phillies, New York Yankees, New York Mets, Cleveland Indians, Pittsburgh Pirates, Washington Nationals, and the Tampa Bay Rays, along with the NHL’s Boston Bruins).
But we had no idea that Cincinnati-based Cintas is the Official Restroom Sponsor of Fenway Park. That’s good to know. (There’s a bunch of others here.)
2) The Chateau Auguste ad did not run in the Boston Herald. That makes it the thirsty local tabloid times two.
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Boston Red Sox, Chateau Auguste, Cintas, Fenway Park, Googletron, Local Dailies DisADvantage, official red wine, official restroom sponsor, thirsty local tabloid, W.B. Mason | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
May 15, 2018
From our Late to the Get Well Party desk
The hardreading staff has been remiss in failing to note this half-page ad that the Massachusetts Department of Public Health ran over the weekend in the Boston Sunday Globe.
The ad – wait for it – did not run in the Boston Herald.
We have no statistical basis for this, but the hardguessing staff can’t believe that Herald readers don’t experience strokes in proportionally equal numbers to Globe readers.
So we’ll be contacting the DPH to ask why the ad did not also run in the thirsty local tabloid.
We will, as always, keep you posted.
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: Boston Globe, Boston Herald, DPH, Local Dailies DisADvantage, mass.gov/stroke, Massachusetts Department of Public Health, thirsty local tabloid | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
April 9, 2018
From our Local Dailies DisADvantage desk
It seems that Mistah Mayah has been following our kissin’ cousins at One-Daily Town, given that this City of Boston ad appears in today’s Boston Globe but not the Boston Herald.
That’s the hat trick for Walsh: He also snubbed the thirsty local tabloid the past two years.
Whatsamatta, Marty – coverage in the Herald not fawning enough for you?
Show some class, man.
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: #OneBostonDay, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Elizabeth Warren, Local Dailies DisADvantage, Marty Walsh, Mistah Mayah, One-Daily Town, thirsty local tabloid | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
March 26, 2018
From our Local Dailies DisADvantage desk
First, disclosure: The hardreading staff has been a New York Giants fan since the days the team was called the New York Football Giants. (Don’t bother sending any abusive comments, splendid readers. Being a Giants fan is punishment enough itself.)
So we’re quite happy that former New England Patriot left tackle Nate Solder is Big Town bound, even at the cost of $62 million over four years, with $35 million guaranteed.
Solder’s feelings about leaving town, however, are mixed, as he mentioned in this full-page ad in yesterday’s Boston Globe.
Crosstown at the Boston Herald there was . . . nothing.
Note to Nate: Some denizens of Patriot Nation actually read the Herald. Apparently you won’t miss them – except with your ad dollars. Maybe Herald scribe Karen Guregian should take back the respectful sendoff she gave you yesterday.
Plenty left still to tackle
Solder loss leaves hole, concerns
The Patriots have a question mark in a place no team wants a question mark. They’re below par in the one position they can’t afford to be, especially with Tom Brady the linchpin to their success.
Uncertainty with Brady’s blind side protector? That’s not been a major storyline heading into a season for quite some time. Left tackle has been a strength for nearly two decades, from Matt Light to Nate Solder.
For the Herald, advertisers present a different kind of blind side: They don’t even see the thirsty local tabloid.
New slogan for the paper: Ad loss leaves hole, concerns.
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Karen Guregian, Local Dailies DisADvantage, Nate Solder, New England Patriots, New York Football Giants, thirsty local tabloid, Tom Brady | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
February 5, 2018
As the hardreading staff noted the other day, the Boston Herald has of late increased the amount of its “sponsored content” while decreasing the legibility of its disclosure.
Now the Boston Globe apparently wants to join the stealthy local tabloid in profiting from ads in sheep’s clothing, running this on A12 of today’s edition. (Here’s the digital version on the Globe website.)
(To be sure graf goes here)
To be sure, sharp-eyed observers will pick up that it’s actually an ad, but not everyone is as perceptive as you, splendid reader. For some, anything with a headline and a byline qualifies as editorial content. Which is exactly what stealth marketing counts on.
Regardless, we’re guessing that the revenue-impaired Globe and the bankrupt Herald will increasingly turn toward this sleight-of-ad as time goes on.
We hope, of course, to be proven wrong.
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: ads in sheep's clothing, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Boston Herald Radio, Chuck Leddy, Isenberg, Isenberg UMass Amherst, Local Dailies DisADvantage, Massachusetts State Lottery, Rigby & Peller, sleight-of-ad, sneaky local tabloid, sponsored content, stealthy local tabloid, thirsty local tabloid | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
February 3, 2018
The sneaky local tabloid just keeps getting sneakier.
As the hardreading staff has noted on multiple occasions, the Boston Herald’s publication of stealth marketing (a.k.a. “sponsored content”) has steadily become more and more – ah – stealthy, as the labeling of same grows smaller and smaller.
(Pop quiz: Is that an oxymoron, or are we?)
For example, here’s how sponsored content for intimate apparel retailer Rigby & Peller was labeled in March of 2016.
Then there’s this advertorial for the Massachusetts State Lottery from a year ago.
And now comes this from yesterday’s edition of the stealthy local tabloid. (Inexplicable Little Green 1 at no extra charge.)
Do we detect a pattern emerging here?
All of those ads in sheep’s clothing originated in interviews on Boston Herald Radio, which has up to several listeners but which more importantly provides the Herald with a steady stream of stealth marketing opportunities.
Given the Local Dailies DisADvantage the thirsty local tabloid labors under, that just might be the best it can do.
2 Comments | Uncategorized | Tagged: ads in sheep's clothing, Boston Herald, Boston Herald Radio, Local Dailies DisADvantage, Massachusetts State Lottery, Rigby & Peller, sneaky local tabloid, sponsored content, stealthy local tabloid, thirsty local tabloid | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
It's Good to Live in a Two-Daily Town 