• by John Gaffney , August 12, 2002

Gimme Rock Hard Abs, Hiking Boots And An Armani Suit To Look Good In: Let me get this straight. You take a men’s magazine that has carved a unique niche in terms of content and audience. You grow it to the point that your last issue jumped from 54 pages last year to 73 pages this year. In fact you’re running revenue 29 percent ahead of last year in a crap market. And now you’re going to reposition it? Jann Wenner’s move to take Men’s Journal and aim it at the Esquire/GQ market will turn out to be brilliant or incredibly impulsive. The reason it could be just a knee-jerk move, is that GQ and Esquire both attracted fewer ad pages than Men’s Journal in July, and Men’s Journal had certainly improved this year from a revenue standpoint. Granted, the men’s fashion books grab a lot of spring and fall business. But if Wenner can’t distinguish Men’s Journal editorially, he just flushed a valuable magazine. Which leads me to the potentially smart play. If Wenner melds old style Rolling Stone political and artsy features with Men’s Journal’s sense of adventure and GQ’s new age macho approach – that’s a winner in terms of content.

I’m Too Sexy For My Ads: I let my seven year old daughter stay up late to watch TV Saturday, which I now regret. Problem was not the SNL rerun we were watching; the problem were two ads. Starburst’s new spot stops just short of being too suggestive, tongues and all. And Vespa’s new ad, where a guy seems to be promising a woman he will “mount” her, but it’s the really the scooter he’s talking to. I had 100 percent brand recall for both ads. And found a new reason to watch PBS after nine.

This Year’s Model: The Anna Nicole Show is indicative of too many TV shows these days. It’s extremely well marketed, intriguing and totally void of content.