wither in the light

The current issue of The New Yorker is an exercise in corporate intrusion run amok... the only advertiser in the whole issue is Target. Readers aren't too thrilled by this:

The all-Target New Yorker is the product of a more nakedly mercenary world where advertisers no longer need conceal their aims. There's nothing subliminal about it: I counted over 200 Target logos in the first 19 pages alone, and there were still eleven ads left to go when I gave up.

Some feel that the magazine crossed the line... the (umm) 'target' demographic isn't particularly unsophisticated, and the crass marketeering has more in common with The Shopping Channel than with the usual editorial content.

In the wake of a puff piece by New York Times advertising columnist Stuart Elliott last week announcing Target had cut a deal with the New Yorker to become its sole advertiser for the magazine's Aug. 22 edition, copies of that issue began arriving in mailboxes and hitting newsstands this week.

Now we can see exactly what the results of that deal are: A 90-page publication where it is almost impossible to discern any line of demarcation between Target's advertising and the New Yorker editorial product.

Ethical questions aside, what marketing genius came up with the imagery for the Target/New Yorker-hybrid? I'm thinking the last thing we need is images of New York with targets painted on all of the buildings. Fucking brilliant.