The Guardian desperately tries to re-heat its own souffle today, with an op-ed article by fashion reporter Laura Barton claimimg, "The G-spot has always been a contentious issue, but perhaps never more than this week when the latest advertising campaign from the Italian fashion house Gucci was unveiled in Vogue. Yes, the world was aghast at Mario Testino's photographs of supermodel Carmen Kass, splayed against a wall while a sharply cheekboned young chap gazed at her crotch".

"The world was aghast"?? Really. I thought the world was aghast with the North Korea's threat, shock arrest of The Who legend Pete Townshend, the Iraki arsenal, the economic recession, the floods in Europe and Eminem's new movie. Apart The Guardian itself, you could say virtually no newspapers carried the Carmen Kass scandal this week.

But, wait, there's more. Dissecting the scandal effects in History (that is, from 2000 to 2003, since Ms Barton apparently has no real perspective to offer), the article continues:

"Yves Saint Laurent's advert for Opium, displaying a gloriously naked Sophie Dahl, is one of the best-remembered perfume campaigns. It led to 948 complaints to the ASA, and staggering sales for YSL."

That's fashion journalism for you. The PR for YSL told Barton the sales of Opium jumped up, and she woudn't bother to open the PRP_Gucci financial statements to check. As reported here earlier, the Opium sales were catastrophic, leading YSL executives to drop the Dahl ad for a pic of the Opium bottle. But then, that wouldn't fit nicely in this PR service to Gucci, would it?