Ad runs into editorial

I was surprised to see photos of brightly colored food products cascading down the middle of an editorial page in Sunday’s paper.

Were these foods being recalled in connection with the flu epidemic? They were right next to an article on the flu alert. They couldn’t be related to the other article on the page, I thought, which was about the next Supreme Court nomination.

I kept searching for some kind of connection. Then I noticed the full-page ad on the opposite page: Ah, these were illustrations of products offered at Target!

The devolution of the paper continues with this latest example of mixing advertising and editorial content (there was no disclaimer on the food photos to identify them as ads).

This cheapening of the paper may bring in a few extra advertising dollars today, but the loss of respect for the paper will, in the long-run, be much more costly.

Isabel Storey

Santa Monica