“Just Run The Ad Exactly As I Wrote It!”: Newspaper Takes Heat From Election Candidate For Proofreading His Ad, Next Time Runs It Exactly As He Wrote It

In ancient times, the very ability to write was perceived by most people as a kind of magic. Then, over time, the ability to write without typos seemed to be something magical… and then the 21st century came, with its built-in autocorrect, voice messages, video over text priority – and now we are returning to where we came.

Well, people are generally reluctant to accept their own shortcomings. And then the best thing that can help deal with them is some good old malicious compliance. Basically, everything that happened in this story from the user u/ashleyorelse.

The author of the post once worked as an editor of a small local newspaper, and the local elections were approaching

Image credits: MIKI Yoshihito (not the actual photo)

A local guy asked the newspaper to run his advertisement for elections as a candidate

Image credits: ashleyorelse 

Image credits: CartridgeSave Images (not the actual photo)

Image credits: ashleyorelse 

That candidate had taken part in several elections before – but with no luck at all

Image credits: San José Public Library (not the actual photo)

Image credits: ashleyorelse 

The guy’s ad had a funny typo but he insisted that the newspaper run it exactly as he wrote it

So, the Original Poster (OP) says that many years ago, they were an editor in a small local newspaper, and they were approached by a local guy who wanted to run his print campaign advertisements for elected office. According to the author of the post, this candidate had previously participated in the elections several times – but has always been defeated. This time, however, the man was incredibly serious.

According to the client, the main reason for his failures in the previous elections was that newspaper editors proofread his ads and made changes to them. Thus, according to the candidate, his message to voters changed drastically – and they were literally forced to vote for his competitors. But now the man was adamant – he demanded that his ad be run exactly as he wrote it. No changes – he pays, he also specifies what to print in the newspaper!

Well, this time, the editor simply decided to do what the client wanted. But even if they promised not to edit the text, this did not mean that it would not be read at all. So the original poster opened the file he sent, read it carefully – and immediately called the entire editorial team to have a good laugh! And there was a reason – the candidate’s advertisement read: “(His name) for (elected office)! Always there, for you to help!”

Well, promises must be kept, so the ad was run in the same form as it was sent by the customer. Is it necessary to say that he lost the elections again? However, this time, as the OP notes, the hapless candidate could no longer shift all the blame to the journalists who distorted his intent. Anyway, it is quite possible that he again came up with some bizarre reasons – who knows? After all, sometimes admitting our own weakness is the hardest thing for us to do.

Image credits: Università di Pavia (not the actual photo)

In fact, journalistic standards usually do not allow changes to original texts – if, for example, we are talking about an interview with a person speaking broken English. “Never alter quotations even to correct minor grammatical errors or word usage,” the Associated Press Stylebook claims. The New York Times literally echoes them: “The Times does not ‘clean up’ quotations.” Okay, we figured that out – after all, readers are interested in knowing the direct speech of the interviewed person, and not the journalist who corrects this speech. But what to do with typos in advertising?

“In this situation, if we see an obvious typo or a factual error that could affect the perception of the text by readers, we contact the customer and inform them about it,” says Valeriy Bolgan, editor-in-chief of the Intent Press news agency from Ukraine, with whom Bored Panda got in touch for a comment. “And if the customer insists that the text or heading does not change, then so be it.”

“Of course, we will proofread everything that is published in order to prevent the appearance of any inappropriate, offensive or slanderous information. If we are talking about a simple typo, then the maximum that is permissible in this situation is a note that the editors may not share the opinion of the advertiser. In any case, a very funny situation took place here, so malicious compliance on the part of journalists is the best option of all possible,” Valeriy states.

People in the comments went wild over the story, pointing out that a candidate probably wouldn’t have had a chance of winning an election with a similar background anyway. But in any case, there were many such stories with typos that changed the meaning of advertising – suffice it to recall this story told by one of the commenters about an advertisement for camel hair suits, where the newspaper mistakenly changed the u for an h. By the way, if you too have come across such funny typos, we are already looking forward to your own tales in the comments!

The candidate lost the elections again, and folks in the comments actually cracked up at this story

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