Mirror ad blitz offers Sun Protection

The Daily Mirror is trying to get one over on its rival, The Sun, with a summer-themed marketing campaign under the strapline: “Sun Protection. Read the Intelligent Tabloid”.
Copies of the Mirror with a specially printed cover were distributed in London this morning. They can be folded to create a “sun protection” hat, and branded lip balms were also being given away.
The initiative follows an “Eclipse of The Sun” poster campaign earlier this year promoting the fact that the Mirror now has more readers in print and online than The Sun, according to the National Readership Survey.
Since then, the Mirror’s print sales have fallen nearly 1 million copies behind its rival – 856,499 compared to 1,856,790 per day – the two are virtually neck and neck when print and online sales are combined, due to The Sun’s online paywall.
However, the News UK publication still seemed rather miffed at the latest swipe from its rival. In a classic case of “we think thou dosh protest too much”, a Sun spokesman told UK Press Gazette: “They should spend more time taking a long hard look in The Mirror and contrast their recent stories with the exclusives in The Sun.
“In July The Sun and Sun on Sunday recorded the biggest sales increase of any newspapers, the daily paper now averaging a million more paid sales than the Daily Mirror.
“Perhaps their staff and readers would prefer it if they invested in actual journalism, rather than embarrassing stunts.”
Late last year, The Sun found itself on the wrong side of the Advertising Standards Authority for running a campaign which pimped out a Page 3 model, as a promotional prize.