For the past few years now, online versions of many of this city and country’s daily newspapers have been our go-to, one-stop shop for all things Paulina Gretzky related.
The daughter of hockey legend Wayne Gretzky has become a minor Internet celebrity ever since she turned legal age and learned that posting Instagram photos of her and her friends wearing well-ventilated clothing can become a career in itself. All of which is due in no small part to the decreasing hesitation of media outlets in posting what amounts to photo galleries of T&A on their once hallowed pages to boost the number of oglers like us clicking our way through fleshy picture after fleshy picture.
While the print versions of these papers have had their share of accolades, the websites tend to be a hodgepodge of news, weird wire stories, celebrity gossip and said galleries. So it was with some familiarity that we recently encountered the blunt online headline “Paulina Gretzky strips down for Maxim cover (with photos).”
The “story” in question informed us that Maxim Magazine does indeed still exist and prominently displayed the cover of its latest Gretzky slathered edition, complete with pun-filled tagline “The Great One’s Daughter is Puckin’ Hot!” and no fewer than 32 photos to really flesh out the issue for readers. To Maxim’s credit, its headline writers resisted the urge to use “Ice to Meet You,” “G-Spot,” “The Oilers’ Daughter” and “Two Minutes for Looking so Good.”
However, what really caught our eye was the website’s following admission: “Gretzky is largely famous from her Instagram account (chronicled in the gallery above) where she routinely posts photos of herself with friends in swimsuits and other skimpy outfits. The account has turned her name into one of the biggest click-bait headlines of the Internet in 2013.”
It’s difficult for us to describe how refreshing it was to read an online newspaper dispel with the usual wink-wink/nudge-nudge of its “lad magazine” content and come right out and call its coverage of Paulina Gretzky’s lack of coverage for what it is: “click bait.”
It’s like Rob Ford finally admitting to smoking crack, the Wizard of Oz letting Dorothy behind the curtain and Darth Vader telling Luke Skywalker “I am your father” all rolled into one. Plus, you have to admit, “click bait” has such a nicer ring than “continuing the objectification of women to increase online ad revenue.”
