Evening Standard Reconsiders Gipsy Camp Pun?
by Martin Belam, 16 June 2005
Both the Evening Standard and the Standard Lite contained a feature today by fashion editor Laura Craik about skirts. Not being a fashionista the thing that caught my eye was the difference in the editorial treatment. The later edition has clearly benefitted from a re-write, but what was most noticeable was the alternative headlines. The Evening Standard went for a quite sober:
Girls will wear swirls this summer
The gipsy skirt is the surprise smash hit of the season - the longer, the frothier and the more diaphanous the better
Unlike the earlier edition which screamed in true tabloid puntastic fashion:
Gipsy skirt style sets up camp in the High St
I wonder whether the difference reflects a conscious decision to target a more tabloid agenda with the free paper at lunchtime, a simple case of re-writing to suit the layout, or a reflection that maybe the earlier Standard Lite headline was pandering to prejudice.
Are you sure it wasn't the reverse? The Evil Standard came out, but then the editors noticed it wasn't prejudiced, reactionary rubbish, so they changed it for the freeshit?