On the NYTimes front page ads

This week marked the debut of front page display ads on the New York Times A1. CBS was the first to pony up for the ads, which reportedly run at around 100,000 a pop and are supposedly going to help rescue the Times in these bad *ahem* times. I get it, Times, you need the dolla bills - print is dying (Just ask the Atlantic, psht.) I can't blame you. 

I can, however, blame CBS. The ad which ran yesterday, a prime-time show pimping disguised (very poorly) as faux-world summit announcement, was painful. One would think that if you're going to shell out a hundred grand for advertising on the New York Times, even if it is below the fold, you would put a little more crafting into it. 

Mainly it's a font issue, which I realize lumps me into a small niche group of individuals who have inexplicable rage caused by poor font placement. In this case, a slightly italicized block sans-serif. Underlined. Excuse me, I feel queasy.  It looks like an ad I would have hated to have in my section of the Vassar college paper because of its awkwardness and ugliness. Though the block of ugly does, probably, achieve its advertising goal of grabbing my attention, CBS is now even further away from convincing me to watch "World Comedy Leader" How I met Your Mother (as if that were possible).