The Gawker Skybox (Update: Had) Issues: An Apology and Explanation
Good morning! Welcome back from the long holiday weekend. If you're like us, you're probably wondering why pictures of Michael Showalter and Michael Ian Black are the first things you see at the top of the home page. It's a glitch, we're told, that's running art from two different ad campaigns on the site right now. Update: the whole thing has been taken down until the issue is resolved. Thanks, ad folks.
From time-to-time, advertisers like to splash their ads over the space we call the "skybox" for a few seconds. It's a showy, sometimes pretty, way for advertisers to impress their brand into your cortex. But these are, well, confusing. It's unclear what Showalter and Black have to do with eBay, who's apparently bought the front page today. Separately, though, it's bizarre to see their faces over headlines like "Does Tiger Woods Really Think He Can Wait This One Out?" and "Seven Reasons Why White House Party Crashers are Awesome for America." If an advertiser wants to use the "look" of our skybox, they should also take some time to (ahem, use our crack creative services team to) write their own headlines.
Since editorial and advertising at Gawker Media work independently, I never see ads until they go live on the site. Our overlord Nick Denton is usually the one who approves ads like these and he said he never saw this particular takeover before it went live. So, blame him. The glitch is being fixed, and I apologize for any confusion or unnecessary distraction this may have caused.