Los Angeles Times Front Page Dominated by Disney Cartoon Ad

November 27th, 2013 2:53 PM

NB reader Gary Hall reports "It's not unusual to see a fake wrap front page at the LAT's - that's a full page ad that you peel off an throw away. Sometimes it's a half page that's wrapped around."  (Washington Post readers often have a sticker advertisement pasted on the front page.)

But Wednesday's Los Angeles Times is dominated by an ad for the Disney cartoon movie "Frozen." This is the first time Gary remembers seeing this kind of promotion. (Visual here.)

It might make an LA Times reader a little more skeptical about the rave review for “Frozen” by film critic Betsy Sharkey. The headline was “'Frozen' an icy blast of fun from the first snowflake: With its dramatic Nordic landscape, soaring music and a fabulous ensemble led by Kristen Bell and Idina Menzel, Disney's 'Frozen' is a magical 3-D winter wonderland.”

But "Frozen" also has high critic and user scores at Metacritic.

Update: Andrew Beaujon at Poynter MediaWire finds the L.A. Times has done this before:

In 2009, the NBC show “Southland” took out an ad that looked like an article on the front. In 2010, it ran a wrap-around ad with a large image of Johnny Depp “superimposed over what looks like the usual, sober front page,” as Richard Pérez-Peña wrote.