Well the Doc opened up the old mailbag today and here’s what poured out.

Dear Dr. Ads.

There I was, minding my own business and working my way through the Sunday New York Times (there really should be a federal subsidy for that, don’t you think?) when I realized that the paper contained an inordinate number of full-page ads for Cartier, the posh jewelry store in the Big Town.

Not only was there a four-page Cartier wrapper around yesterday’s edition of the Times, there were also full-page Cartier ads on the back page of every section of the paper.

What’s going on here, Doc?

– Diamond Errings?

Dear Diamond,

You’re right – it was Cartier Blanche in yesterday’s Times. In addition to that four-page wrapper, the Grey Lady was bejeweled with at least, by the Doc’s count, nine full-page Cartier ads, not to mention this footer ad on Page One.

There was also this ad in the A section.

And this ad in the Sports section.

And this ad in the Business section.

And etc.

Cartier also annexed the Times website yesterday.

And don’t forget: A Cartier native ad is your most important accessory.

But wait – there’s more, via Andrew Salomon’s Twitter feed.

As our kissin’ cousins at Sneak Attack noted a few years ago, New York Times executive editor Dean Baquet is unconcerned about advertisers coopting editorial content.

[Baquet] said that nothing has changed with regard to the advertising division’s relations with the editorial operation, which has always made its own decisions about coverage.

The difference today, he said, is that questions about the appropriate line between business and editorial come up more often. “In the print era, you created something. It worked or didn’t work,” he said. “Now, we’re in an era where those conversations happen more frequently and we have to move faster.”

Translation: The traditional Chinese Wall that separated advertising and editorial has turned into the Berlin Wall – knocked down and sold off brick by brick.