Perfectly packaged

Searching through The New York Times, I stumbled upon this photo. I first assumed it was just an advertisement.  It led me to reading the whole story, which was a perfect example of The Wall Street Journal formula. 

The story begins with a narrative lead introducing Terry Gardner to the readers through a story about why she shaved her head.  It includes a quote, the message that Air New Zealand wanted to send through these temporary tattoos, and it also sets up the rest of the story that goes more in depth about the company, its actions and other companies’ efforts at similar endeavors.

I felt the fourth paragraph served as the nut graph for this article.  After reading it through, the last line is what really drew me in to read the rest of the story: “when co-workers or strangers behind them in the grocery store line asked about New Zealand, they could speak enthusiastically right off the top of their heads-so to speak.”

The rest of the story is full of support material including quotes by contestants who went through the experience, examples of a variety of similar marketing campaigns, successes and failures of these campaigns and a little history about tattoo-related ads.

Finishing off with another anecdote and quote by Terry Garner, the story is wrapped up quite nicely fulfilling the criteria of a perfectly packaged Wall Street Journal formula. 

Photography from The New York Times