ASME: New Yorker Target issue not sexy at all

AdAge reports The New Yorker got a perfunctory tap on the wrist from the American Society of Magazine Editors for its mono-advertiser Target issue for failing to include a notice explaining that the advertiser did not influence editorial content. For the record, ASME didn’t actually think that Target influenced content (unlike the agitated Lewis Lazare at the Chicago Sun-Times who considered the move to be “the most jaw-dropping collapse of the so-called sacred wall between editorial and advertising in modern magazine history” (we’re gonna go with the whole LAT mag/Staples Center imbroglio here. Or, you know, maybe some of the stuff that Jolie used to talk about. Any other suggestions?). Marketwatch’s Jon Friedman didn’t mind it; we didn’t either (we just thought the ads blatantly styled like the New Yorker but blatantly Target ads were un peu tacky) (NB those red and white beachballs on the cover did, however, raise some eyebrows). Fortunately, this will not affect the magazine’s eligibility to win a ridiculous number of Ellies next year. I’m sure all those other magazines are glad to have them in the race!

If you haven’t seen the ads in question, AdAdge helpfully has them here.

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