D-G Testimonials Lack Verve (Outtakes Opinion)

So far, we’re underwhelmed by the testimonial advertisements the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette has been running on television and publishing in its newspaper.

The thing is, nobody in the testimonials seems particularly excited about the Northwest Arkansas edition of the state’s largest newspaper.

In one testimonial Elise Mitchell, president of Mitchell Communications of Fayetteville, said, “The Democrat-Gazette does just a fabulous job of being the equivalent of a big city newspaper.” Equivalent? Is that a compliment? Keep in mind, Mitchell is from Memphis, a big city with a notoriously lame newspaper.

In his ad, David Layman, owner of Layman’s Furniture of Springdale, said, “If I were to choose a paper … I’m afraid I would have to make the decision to go with the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.” Afraid?

Bear with us while we do a little hearing between the lines, but in one TV spot, Andrea Taylor, marketing manager at the Northwest Arkansas Mall, seems to be saying, “Well, we started taking the D-G when we moved here, and for lack of a better alternative, we just kept taking it.”

Some of the testifiers — like Shellie Morrison, owner of The Event Group of Fayetteville, and Dan Ferritor, former chancellor of the University of Arkansas — were happy because the D-G landed at their doorstep every morning but had little to say about its content or quality.

One D-G print ad featured Amy Lindsey of Lindsey & Associates saying “The Democrat-Gazette is the first paper I read in the morning.” The ad doesn’t mention that Lindsey once worked in advertising sales at the D-G and that her father, Tim Lewallen, is general manager of The El Dorado News-Times, a paper that, like the D-G, is owned by Walter Hussman.

Dean Redford, manager of J.C. Penney in the Northwest Arkansas Mall, was quoted in a print ad saying only, “The newspaper that most of my friends read is probably the Democrat-Gazette.”

Probably? Is that a testimonial? In a subsequent print ad, Redford was quoted as saying “I think the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette is a great newspaper.” Perhaps those two quotes should have been put together in the same ad. Without the second one, the first quote makes it seem like Redford couldn’t be coerced into saying anything good about the D-G.