I received a voicemail this morning from a concerned reader regarding an ad in the back of the paper. The ad says that on average, escorts have sex with seven men in a day, while women in general have sex with seven men in a lifetime. (It being an ad and not a news story, there was no attribution for these figures.) The ad was offering hookups with “real, clean women.” As opposed to unreal, clean women?
First, this ad is for a company that matches married people looking for sex with someone besides their spouse. The company slogan: “Life is short. Have an affair.” (Want life to be shorter? Get caught.) But it’s really none of my business how people run their marriages.
My point is—and please tell your family, friends, coworkers, pets—as editor, I have no control over our advertising clients. And it should be that way because I wouldn’t want the advertising department controlling editorial content. I explained this in a previous blog post. This is known as the “editorial/ad wall” and no, Mr. Gorbachev, this wall won’t be torn down.
I don’t like some ads that run in the Indy. I’m sure there are stories that make our sales reps cringe. That’s the newspaper business. People sometimes ask, “Why do you run these ads?” The answer: “It helps pay the bills.” That’s the unvarnished truth.
My suggestion to people who don’t like ads of a sexual nature: Don’t read them.
