If you don’t know by now about the unfortunate typo in an advertisement that ran in the Thursday, Nov. 21 edition of the Comox Valley Record, you are one of the few.
No sooner did the paper hit the stands, than the fallout began for our Downtown Courtenay Business Improvement Association ad promoting the events of Sunday, Dec. 1, stating “Pictures with Satan” would be available at 11:15.
Photos of the ad were being shared far and wide on social media, with the newspaper rightfully being called out for its lack of attention to detail.
There is no excuse for it, and we aren’t about to use this space to make any.
The same number of eyes proofed the ad as with anything that runs through the advertising and production departments.
Somehow, this was missed, and for that, we sincerely apologize – to the clients affected, as well as to any readers offended by the mistake.
As a newspaper, it is our responsibility to make sure the information we distribute is accurate – from the editorial department, as well as the advertising department.
We often chuckle about the typos we have caught, breathing sighs of relief when the L in “public” or the B in “Hornby” is added by the last set of eyes before going to print. Even those are not always caught.
But when it happens in an ad, it becomes all that much more blatant. They are called “display ads” for a reason. They are meant to stand out on the page. This one did that, for all the wrong reasons.
On the bright side, everyone in the Comox Valley and beyond knows when the Courtenay Christmas parade is… and the Captain Thunderpants concert should be a complete sell-out. So there’s that.
Parade is at 2 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 1.
Pictures with Santa start at 11:15 at the Native Sons Hall.
Thanks to the Downtown Courtenay Business Improvement Association for its sponsorship of Sunday’s activities. It’s going to be a great event.
