Clever word play, and not so clever...

It is always a joy to see stuff in print that has been cleverly crafted, such as when a headline exquisitely "teases" a story, or when a creative copywriter makes an ad shine out. Here's one example in the sports page of today's Sunday Times (8 Jan). I'll let the headline and first few paragraphs speak for themselves:

This time, Elin's the home wrecker

Tiger Woods may have got off lightly when ex-wife Elin Nordegren took only a golf club to smash his car when she found out he had been cheating on her on Thanksgiving day three years ago.

This time, the former Swiss model has taken a wrecking ball to the US$12.3 million ocean-front house in North Palm Beach, Florida, which she bought last March...

She wants to replace it with her dream 1,760 sq m three-storey home...

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Going through my "collection", I found other examples of stuff that works, and of those that don't. First, the well-crafted ones:

Context: This headline above makes reference to the huge A&F wall poster ad which showed a hunky male model, abs and all, and striking a provocative pose. The ad had the approval from the relevant authority but there was a public outcry over it.

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And here are just a few bad ones, those that I think didn't work...

Context: This ad above (by a slimming company) is yet another statistical licence! The ad below touts a beauty cream.