Wednesday, February 24, 2010

It Pays to Advertise--Unless It's by Dems

It pays to advertise.

That's what newspapers tell businesses over and over. Take out an ad in our newspaper and your business will go up. Having a sale? Take out an ad and tell people about it. Running for office? Run an ad to tell people about yourself. Run an ad, run an ad, run an ad. Pages of newspapers have tons of ads and little holes left over for the news -- newsholes, they're called.

So I was a little surprised to read in the Livingston Press and Argus recently (Feb. 16, 2010) that the newspaper wants proof that the Pure Michigan advertising campaign, which is one of the loveliest pieces of state advertising I have ever seen, needs to prove that it boosts tourism in the state.

Funny, I've never been given that kind of proof when I place a classified ad in the local paper, or when the newspaper comes and asks me to place ads before elections. Not once was I shown a study that proved anything about the effectiveness of advertising in their paper as opposed to advertising for free on Craig's List or in the Marketeer.

But now that Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm is placing the ads, the local paper is up in arms and demands proof that advertising works.

Wonder if they would be so suspicious if the ads were running in their pages?

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