2005-02-23

Behold!

Is this the first Onion article with product placement? Or just the first one to combine egregious unfunniness with an absolutely stone-cold straight plug and link to the sponsor, making the deal obvious?

The unfunniness might be due to overzealous sponsor-end editing rather than authorial ineptitude, but that just highlights the problem. I don't begrudge the Onion the right to make a living somehow. The ads all over their pages are A-OK with me. I don't even have a problem with in-article product placement, in principle. But when, in practice, it comes out by-committee pap that isn't even mildly amusing, it's worthless as entertainment and backfires as advertising. D'oh.

Popularity factor: 5

§

max:

Sadly, I lack the gene that allows me to perceive the humor in The Onion, along with Monty Python and movies like Napoleon Dynamite. Maybe I should try reading it with an Australian accent ...

§

Matt:

I accuse you of being a pod person. Or, at the very least, of not being a cutesy and self-referential nerd in your twenties. J'accuse, Mr Max!

§

justin:

Last week's Onion had a seriously un-funny article about "Ben and Jerry's" ice cream. Now this. I believe we have witnessed the first few tottering steps down a slippery slope.

§

GaijinBiker:

They did a very similar article about Heineken about a year or two ago. Looks like par for the course over there.

I think The Onion is funniest when read in conjunction with normal news.

§

Matt:

Oh, I remember that Ben and Jerry's thing about the new flavor. That was so lame I didn't even read to the end. Heineken I don't remember, probably cause it made such a lame impression. Ah well... as Cicero said, "sic semper libero stuffo on internetum". Well, we'll always have the early print collections.

Comment season is closed.