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The other day I pointed out how the Los Angeles Times website gave its entire front page personality over to the ad campaign for Grand Theft Auto V — and on the same day that its lead story was about the DC mass killer who was into violent video games. Today the New York Times is running GTA ads too on the front web page. But look at what they don't do. The NYT ads are just in the usual ad spaces, not wrapping the whole page. You can minimize the drop-down ad with one click. And from what I have seen, the main imagery is also not the cheesy bikini babe that for most of a day was the dominant look of the LA Times website. So the NYT gets the advertising revenue and still looks like the New York Times — no clutter, no brand confusion, no ad people running the show without limits.
By the way, TMZ has also run GTA ads without doing the full site takeover the LAT lets its ad people get away with. Readers have also emailed to say that ad blockers can clean up even the ugliness the LA Times puts on its website.
