You can tell a lot about a place by looking at the advertising messages it creates and consumes. Unfortunately, the UAE seems to get more than its fair share of bad advertising. So much of it, in fact, that I will post some of the worst examples I come across on this blog from now on. The first bad ad comes from one of my least favourite sub-genres of advertising: the advertorial (adverts dressed up as editorial coverage). Having been involved in the production of advertorials in the past, I know how tedious, often impossible, it is to square the interests of the reader and the advertiser. As this example from the current issue of Brownbook magazine shows, even the UAE’s most style-conscious publications don't always get this balance right.