Ad-only media

Toronto – A new spoof magazine aimed at jaded ad industry professionals does away with articles in favour of ads.

• All proceeds from the project will go to industry charity the National Advertising Benevolent Society (NABS)
• The magazine serves as a critique of adland tropes such as the industry’s obsession with award ceremonies and tired clichés in communications

Media companies have examined the potential of ad-free content for years, but what about content-free, ad-only media? This is the new proposition from Canadian print magazine It Ran.

It Ran is a parody publication set up by Toronto-based agency lg2 to raise funds for industry charity NABS. The title of the magazine pokes fun at the fact that many award-winning ad campaigns are never seen by the public or quickly slip under the radar. In a ironic twist, advertisers can pay for a full-page feature in the magazine that would effectively serve as proof of the ad’s existence for £340 ($500, €442).

The campaign was designed to grab the attention of jaded industry professionals rather than facilitate cheating, according to Ig2.

‘We have become an industry of clichés and it is turning people off,’ Chris Hirsch, creative director of lg2, tells LS:N Global. ‘We decided to cast actors that we would never normally be able to use and break all of the conventional guidelines of safe advertising.’