MediaPost coverage of ZOOZOOM's magazine.org Spoof Ad [Press Releases and Press Coverage]
Yesterday we emailed our media contacts and subscribers a spoof email advertisement aimed at magazine.org (view the ad). It got quite a response (although not from the MPA). We've had many emails asking questions like: who are you? where are you? would you like to have dinner? and what's your point?
The print magazines have said "Why do you hate us?" (which we don't, we love print, we want print to survive).
We reply "We don't hate you. In fact we often use magazines. Only the other day, we had the windows open and a fly flew in. Our publisher picked up a copy of The Face magazine, it was the last edition, thin and malleable, and with an impressive flick of the wrist ..ker-pow... fly down. Ironic how the last thing the fly saw was the last copy of The Face. Anyway that's something you can't do online.'
Seriously, we believe that, like any magazine in any medium, we survive because of our content. Our point is that a magazine is a magazine, whether it is in print or online. Read more about our position in our expanded comment aimed at the magazine.org campaign.
But first here's a piece written in the Media Post.
Magazine Industry Spoof Ads Get Spoofed
by Amy Corr, Wednesday, Jul 13, 2005
WHEN THE MAGAZINE INDUSTRY BROKE its three-year, $40 million consumer advertising campaign early this year, the centerpiece was a series of mock-ups of futuristic covers of actual magazines. One of the ads in the campaign created by Fallon for the Magazine Publishers of America (MPA) featured a Sports Illustrated cover showing the Chicago Cubs winning the Word Series... in 2105. In a twist a rogue online publisher has begun using its own version of the parody ad campaign to parody the print industry's effort.
ZOOZOOM, an online fashion magazine, which bills itself as "the original online glossy," Tuesday began circulating its own version spoofing one of the ads in the MPA campaign.
The original MPA ad showed a man sitting on a park bench reading a magazine while said park bench scrolled stock prices. The background contains a future-esque city and a passing robot. The copy reads: "In the future doctors' offices will be virtual. Families will go on cybervacations. And people will still set aside a moment in each day for something real." ZOOZOOM's ad features a man, present day, sitting in a park with his laptop. The copy states: "Right now, doctors' offices are unfortunately not virtual. Families have to go away together. People are reading magazines online, even in the park."
ZOOZOOM's parody, which was distributed to trade publications and associations including the MPA includes links to the genuine MPA campaign, as well as to ZOOZOOM's blog. 'We're a magazine that's online. We believe that, like any magazine in any medium, we survive because of our content. Our point is that a magazine is a magazine, whether it is in print or online,' explained David McIntyre, publisher of ZOOZOOM.
The gist of the MPA campaign is that no matter how technologically advanced we become in the future, magazines will still exist.
McIntyre said the ad is 'all in good fun. We're not saying that print is dead, rather that everything co-exists.'
The campaign was created in-house by McEye Media Inc., the owner and publisher of zoozoom.com.
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