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Toronto – A new spoof magazine aimed at jaded ad industry professionals does away with articles in favour of ads.
Media companies have examined the potential of ad-free content for years, but what about content-free, ad-only media? This is the new proposition from Canadian print magazine It Ran.
It Ran is a parody publication set up by Toronto-based agency lg2 to raise funds for industry charity NABS. The title of the magazine pokes fun at the fact that many award-winning ad campaigns are never seen by the public or quickly slip under the radar. In a ironic twist, advertisers can pay for a full-page feature in the magazine that would effectively serve as proof of the ad’s existence for £340 ($500, €442).
The campaign was designed to grab the attention of jaded industry professionals rather than facilitate cheating, according to Ig2.
‘We have become an industry of clichés and it is turning people off,’ Chris Hirsch, creative director of lg2, tells LS:N Global. ‘We decided to cast actors that we would never normally be able to use and break all of the conventional guidelines of safe advertising.’
Consumers are increasingly turned off by clichéd messaging. In the age of Anti-authenticity Marketing, it pays to tear up the rulebook and create campaigns that shock.