A BJ promo ad from 1986

This promotion ad in the Beacon Journal was one in a series of in-paper promotion ads that won a top award in the 1986 Ohio Newspaper Advertising Executives statewide competition among daily newspapers. Click on the ad to enlarge for a better view.

Here’s the copy block for the ad promo for Bill O’Connor:

When Bill O'Connor attends one of the 120 or so movies and 80 theatrical productions he sees each year, he approaches his job as critic for the Beacon Journal in this way:

He states, "I approach the movie or play as the late James Cagney approached acting. Cagney said, "You look the other fellow in the eye and you tell the truth." "So, too, in a movie or play, we should be told the truth about the world portrayed, whether that truth be painful, funny, or insightful."

"It's when the truth is hedged or there is no truth, that the critic has to howl.”

Bill O'Connor did his undergraduate work at St. Francis College, and he took a Master's degree at Bowling Green University. He spent ten years as an instructor of English and drama with Montana University.

In addition, he has published two novels, Bums and Hershey Bars and The Legend of Horn Mountain and publication of a third, The Wicked Dwell Near Thee, is in negotiations.

Bill O'Connor knows his way around a stage and, so, when you're reading his reviews in the Beacon Journal that's one more way you know about movies and plays that try to tell the truth, those that fail, and those that succeed.

Akron BeaconJournal
the way you know