I wanna be posh like them already: NOT

The usually high quality NRC.next sank to a new low today when they made an advertisement of their front-page news. Is this the way journalism is going? We know it is already moving quickly this way in America (see my previous thread here), but in my beloved Holland?

NRC.next is the morning quick-read tabloidy version of NRC which people take in the train or bus en route to work. NRC can be likened to the New York Times, written for 'liberal intellectuals.'

"Sell it like Beckham" it says next to a full-page photograph of the British football player, David Beckham - and his wife and former Spice Girl, Victoria. It's a report about the couple's new perfume range that will be launched next month. But the NRC doesn't stop at a front-page ad for the couple.

Included is an entire two-page spread, complete with yet another photo of the lovely pair gracing the pages. The article is almost as cheesy as the photos. "This is not David Beckham, the footballer and his wife, the former Spice Girl and singer. This is the brand Beckham." It says. "The perfumes," says their marketing manager, "symbolise the relationship between a man and a woman."

Huh?

Victoria Beckham herself is quoted as saying "There are so many things that interest us. Fashion, make-up. I look at the bigger picture and think 'yes, music is fantastic, football is fantastic', but it's about the bigger picture."

Huh?

The marketing man doesn't know when to stop. "With these perfumes," he says, "[the Beckhams'] lifestyle is brought within reach [of the consumer]."

I knew there was something missing from my life.