Pictured on the left is the latest ad from the Newspaper of Association of America’s campaign to convince consumers and advertisers that the daily newspaper is an effective, timely, modern, and relevant media vehicle. The internet is the best thing to happen to newspapers since the paperboy? Let’s see….which newspaper stock should we look at over the past 5 years to see how they’ve fared? The 5-year charts below are the stock prices for Gannett, Belo, Journal Register, McClatchy, Media General, and the New York Times. Not a lot of happy shareholders in the group. The only thing I can think of in looking at the slopes is that I’d love to snowboard down any one of them (though NYT would qualify as a bunny hill). The statement is as preposterous as stating that Wal-Mart is the best thing to have happened to the local, small-town retailer. What planet is the NAA from again? This campaign has to go down as one of the worst marketing campaigns in the history of advertising.

Tags: Awful Marketing Campaigns, Preposterous Statements, Truth In Advertising, Industry Associations, Daily Newspapers, Newspaper Association of America, NAA, Odd Flyboy On Strange Model Airplane, Snowboarding, Snowboarding Down Stock Charts