Apple hoped to make an impact with a big ad on The New York Times website and it did — for the wrong reason.
The tech giant's big video ad for the iPad Air at the top of the Times homepage ended with a shot of a snorkeler using an iPad underwater. Unfortunately, the ad ran right beside the top story at the time ... about Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak's announcement that Flight MH370 had landed in the Indian Ocean and no one on the flight is thought to have survived.
To be fair to Apple, no advertiser knows what the Times will lead its front page with at any given moment. It's just a one-off piece of bad luck.
Ad Age's Michael Learmonth captured the error on his Twitter account:
A New York Times representative told Ad Age that it was "an unfortunate coincidence that this particular creative ran adjacent to that particular article. The ad was taken down by mutual agreement and we are still determining a resolution regarding placing the ad again."
