Editorial Wizard Transforms Ad Into Article With Addition of Byline
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A modern-day sorcerer turned an advertisement into an article today, Dumb Runner has learned, achieving the transformation with just a few keystrokes at his laptop computer.
David Seth Kotkin, 31, a senior editor at Running Life magazine, performed the feat from his kitchen table in Boulder, Colorado.
Before Kotkin worked his magic, the text in question, 500 words praising a new running shoe, was unquestionably an ad—it extolled the product’s virtues unquestioningly, calling it “fast,” “comfortable,” and “a stylish shoe you can wear on your run-commute and in the office.” It also included quotes from unnamed testers, whose verdicts on the shoe ran from “excellent” to “really excellent.” Photos of the shoe, nine in all, appear to have been supplied by the manufacturer.
In a matter of seconds, however, that would all change.
Typing with one finger as he sipped from a mug of coffee, Kotkin murmured an incantation:
Legerdemain, belief suspension,
Mask this text’s true intention!
By the time he was finished typing “BY JOE MCGUIRE” at the top of the text, Kotkin had turned the ad into a piece of editorial content. Before publishing it to Running Life’s website, he again uttered a mystical couplet:
Cash flow, back scratch, symbiosis,
Slip this ad under readers’ noses!
The manufacturer of the shoe spends an estimated $750,000 a year on ads in Running Life and on RunningLife.com
