Wednesday, January 25, 2006

Ad Man

As part of my new job writing on a weight-loss pill account, I was assigned a lot of reading material, from diet books to Vogue. Perhaps the most disturbing thing about vogue is that even though this issue is only 278 pages (downright slender by some standards), the letter to the editor is on page 78. Aside from the table of contents, which waits until page 38 before making an apperance, the first 1/4 of the magazine has no actual content. While the adman in me is glad that there is still a future in print ads, the pragmatist in me is shocked that companies are still willing to pay for that space. Because someone reading vogue for the content should easily be able to open to about page 50 and flip towards actual writing.

The trick is that (not unlike the super bowl) the readers of vogue are reading for both the content and the advertising. Speaking of sb xl, i still find it interesting how 99.5% of the days when america sees a commericial we flip the channel (unless i'm watching arrested and wouldn't dare miss a second) but when it's the super bowl, people tune in to watch the commercials.

Perhaps if agencies put as much effort (not money, but creative thought) into their everyday work, as they do the super bowl spots, then they would find that people can enjoy watching, remembering, talking about their products and their commercials throughout the year.

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