Prophetic Plastic Post
Part of: LA , NYC*Updated*
Breakfast: Chocolate Mint Balance Bar
A week or so ago I titled a post Plastic Surgery for Dummies. Now the Los Angeles Times has a section that should be titled "Plastic Surgery for Dumb LA People." I have an online subscription to the Times via my parents subscription number. However, the Times didn't e-mail me the supplement. People should do what they want, but I wouldn't look for a plastic surgeon in a newspaper advertisement supplement.
From today's New York Times:
Newspapers occasionally publish advertising supplements on themes they think are of interest to their readers and,of course, their advertisers. The San Francisco Chronicle, for example, ran a section last year pegged to the wine industry. The New York Times has spotlighted Madison Avenue fashion.
So it was probably inevitable that latimes.com, the Web site of The Los Angeles Times, would take the measure of its readership and conclude that there was pent-up demand for a supplement titled "Cosmetic Surgery of Southern California.''
In an e-mail message sent last week to nearly 400,000 registered users of latimes.com, the Web site announced that the online supplement, or advertorial, was intended to provide "general information as an introduction to various cosmetic plastic surgical procedures.''
Those who follow a link to the supplement from the latimes.com home page will discover easy-to-follow guides, written not by journalists but practitioners, to procedures like botox injections (a segment sponsored by Marina Plastic Surgery Associates, according to the site), face lifts (courtesy of Dr. Michael S. Schwartz) and nose reshaping (Dr. Geoffrey R. Keyes of the Keyes Surgicenter.)
They will also find before-and-after photos of the breasts of a woman who has undergone augmentation, and illustrations of a man's genitalia being scanned using Doppler ultrasound. (That technique assesses erectile dysfunction).
Updated
Note to the New York Times:
Plenty of New Yorkers get plastic surgery, so you don't have to cop such an attitude. Lots of actors and actresses get plastic surgery because they are hired partially for their looks. People from New York City are just as vain as Angelenos, if not more so.
Updated
Ginger writes: "I agree -- New Yorkers are just as vain. The only difference is that Angelenos are not ashamed of their vanity and don't make excuses for it, whereas NYers try to pretend that they are not."