Cover Lines from the Year 2105:
"Pregnant at 75
Exploring the Beaches of Antarctica"
New York, NY (April 12, 2005)Some of the nations most popular monthly magazines will be wrapped in faux covers dated up to 100 years in the future and delivered to thousands of advertisers and marketing leaders, it was announced today by Nina Link, President and CEO, Magazine Publishers of America (MPA). The campaign featuring covers of monthly magazines is the latest development in an ambitious and thought-provoking national advertising campaign launched February 28, which touts the enduring power of magazines to engage readers.
The faux covers, which are wrapped around the actual covers of the magazines, suggest that the appeal of magazines to engage readers is so great that even decades into the future, magazines will continue to connect powerfully with consumers.
We want to communicate that in the complex, high-tech world of the future, consumers will continue to choose magazines, said Ms. Link. The futuristic concepts are fun and playful, and illustrate the timeless, personal connection between magazines and consumers.
Beginning this week, six monthly magazine titles, Car & Driver, Cosmopolitan, Parents, Readers Digest, Smithsonian and Travel + Leisure, will be wrapped in faux covers. Previously, only weekly magazines were used. New covers will debut every month, and at least 50 more titles will participate between June and December 2005, with other elements introduced as the campaign evolves. The faux covers are wrapped around complimentary copies of magazines sent to key advertising decision-makers.
The cover lines from the monthly faux covers of the future maintain the same clever and humorous tone of the weekly covers. For instance:
Parents: Pregnant at 75: The Risks and Rewards
Readers Digest: Androids v. Clones: Where Do You Stand?
Travel + Leisure: Road-Testing the New Self-Packing Luggage
Smithsonian: Exploring the Beaches of Antarctica
The $40 million, three-year, multimedia campaign produced by Fallon New York offers a two-tiered creative approach: The core campaign portrays consumers reading magazines in imagined futuristic scenes. The other approach features magazine covers dated several decades into the future. In the first weeks of the campaign, advertisers and media decision-makers received complimentary copies of Newsweek, People, Sports Illustrated, and Timeeach wrapped in a faux cover. The covers are followed by a manifesto that reinforces the enduring benefits of magazines.
The campaign, whose tagline is Read On and which features both print and online components, was produced by Fallon New York and supported by executives from magazine publishers and allied industries. Fallon and MPA are working with magazine editors to develop futuristic cover concepts.
The core campaign will continue to run in advertising and trade media press, trade media websites and newsletters, national newspapers, and in MPA-member magazines through the end of 2005.
A dedicated website (www.magazine.org/readon) showcases the growing gallery of core campaign creative and faux magazine covers. Weekly titles to be released in the upcoming weeks include: BusinessWeek, Entertainment Weekly and Time Out New York. The Read On website will also serve as a portal for advertisers to access information that demonstrate magazines ability to deliver both engagement and accountability.
