Reliability means paying attention

John Foust

May 1, 2025

I remember a billboard on an interstate in North Carolina that caught my eye. It was large, 14’ x 48’ painted sign that promoted a law firm. The headline read, “We help people hit by drunk drivers.” Below the headline was a photo of a wrecked car and the name of a local attorney. Advertising folks like us would like the fact that the message was easy to read because it was in a legible font on a white background.

But the billboard had a problem. The word “by” was covered by an overgrown tree limb on the left side. Instead of reading “We help people hit by drunk drivers,” it read, “We help people hit drunk drivers.” The missing word changed the message into something entirely different.”

Quite a blooper, isn’t it? The problem wasn’t with the sign itself. Someone should have been responsible for sending someone to check on overhanging limbs. Ideally, the limb should have been cut before the advertiser noticed.

Thinking of that sign reminds me of the cover of an upscale clothing catalogue my wife showed to me recently. Suellen pointed out that the model in the photograph was wearing a summer-style dress, but it had obviously been Photoshopped onto a scene of a European tourist attraction with people wearing winter coats in the background. To make matters worse, the model was wearing stiletto heels on a cobblestone street. To people who pay close attention to such things — like my wife — that was a big mistake. “It hurts their credibility,” she said. “The cover gives readers the impression that they don’t pay attention to details. It creates a complete mismatch and goes against their established brand image.”

I’m sure that both of these examples were produced by professionals, but they somehow lost track of the details. Their mistakes resulted in miscommunication and incongruent images.

These mistakes could have easily been prevented. Just ask Everett, who manages his newspaper’s ad department. “We follow the old carpenter’s philosophy to measure twice and cut once,” he told me. “In our world, that means we check ads more than once. By the time an ad runs, we like to feel we’ve done everything to make sure it’s correct. The headline has to be right, the copy has to be right and the illustration has to be right. Beyond those obvious things, we double-check phone numbers, name spelling, business locations, email addresses and web addresses.”

“There’s another saying we take to heart,” he said. “’Do it right or do it over.’ Even a one-character typo — in something as small as a phone number — can ruin the effectiveness of an ad. If that happens, it costs the paper money to correct the problem, and it damages our reputation in that advertiser’s eyes. That’s a lot to risk.”

Everett is right. Whether it’s billboards, catalogue covers or this business of newspaper advertising, it’s all about reliability. We should keep working on the little things to show advertisers they can count on us. © Copyright 2025 by John Foust. All rights reserved.

John Foust has conducted training programs for thousands of newspaper advertising professionals. Many ad departments are using his training videos to save time and get quick results from in-house training. Email for information: john@johnfoust.com