Never hack off an advertiser
This is a true story, but somewhat 4th-hand, so forgive me if the background detail is a little hazy. The end result is still the same though.

Some years ago, in the North East, there was a chap who worked in advertising. Now, apparently, said chap's employer did something to really piss him off, so he left the company. But not before finishing off his final piece of work, which was a Yellow Pages ad for a Tyneside-based tennis club. Not just a 'come and play tennis with us 'cos we're the dog's whatnots' type ad, but a full line illustration type ad, about 4" by 4" on the printed page.

Being a tennis club, a piccie of a male tennis player, in suitably dynamic tennis-playing pose, was deemed to be an appropriate image to boost the club's profile. So advertising chap duly draws up said picture of bloke in blokey tennis pose. Wearing shorts. With his knob hanging out.

Quite how it got past the advertising company's proof reading stage is one of advertising's great mysteries, but the finished ad did indeed end up in copies of the Yellow Pages, right across the North East of England.

Expense? Not sure, but how much would it cost to print several hundred thousand copies of the Yellow Pages and then realise that about two thirds of the way through there's a drawing of a man playing tennis with his knob out?

Length? About half a centimetre once it was printed...
( Davros' Granddad a voice of calm reason in a world of spastics., Wed 31 Oct 2007, 12:45, 2 replies)

Verfication(ish)
I saw this - it got published over in Cumbria too :)
(kyoob, Wed 31 Oct 2007, 14:25, closed)

knobs
There is something inherently funny, in a schoolboy-ish way, about childishly drawn knobs. I remember seeing the advert in question and pissing myself laughing.

Sadly it seems to be a dying art these days. they should teach it at school...
( Davros' Granddad a voice of calm reason in a world of spastics., Wed 31 Oct 2007, 17:40, closed)