Jon's Ego (in print form!)

The New York Times wrote a think piece about something I wrote.

“AMC Ad Uses Snarky Blog Post to Mock Dish Network”

It’s everything my parents imagined when I said I would be a professional writer.

In case you’re curious, the backstory is that, back in July, I made a slideshow thing mocking Dish Network’s handling of the AMC dispute. AMC thought it was funny and has apparently reprinted most (or all?) of it as a full page newspaper ad. Which means I’ve somehow found a way to sell out without actually getting paid.

The whole situation is rather unusual so The New York Times wrote about it:

“The post, by Jon Bershad, mockingly suggested ‘Bikini Barbershop: Jersey’ on HDNet could replace ‘Mad Men’ on AMC and, tongue firmly in cheek, proposed ‘Tia & Tamera’ on Style as an alternative to ‘Breaking Bad’ on AMC.

The sardonic humor of blog posts is not commonplace in mainstream media like USA Weekend, a Sunday newspaper supplement that competes with Parade. Nor is such attitude typically expressed in ads in those media.

Executives at AMC Networks, however, said they believed the satiric point of the ad would be caught by USA Weekend readers.”

The paper of record wrote an article asking if people will be able to understand my sarcasm. This is like an incredibly surreal version of every disciplinary meeting I ever had with teachers in high school.

So please enjoy the New York Times think piece about the newspaper ad that reprints the blog post I wrote for the job I don’t really have anymore.

I plan on writing up this whole experience in my resume as “Extensive copywriting experience.”