Mag inserts

[robp]

Received subscription PBO yesterday. Normally with any new mag I hold it by the binding over a bin and divest it of all the junk. However my 9 year old has taken to grabbing YM and PBO and scanning for cheap RIB's and pics of Oysters!! Out comes the bloody scratch cards with promises of Millions....(Enough to buy a 3M Rib with wheel steering and a 60 ft Oyster to put it on). Now these cards are a rip off (IMHO). Everyone's a winner - Right! And at £7.00 plus for the phone call to get something useless, I can do without the endless badgering from and explaining to a small person who hasn't yet learned to be cynical.

This could stop my renewal of subscriptions.

 

[Twister_Ken]

Not only that, but...

... my subscription copy arrived about 10 days later than usual.

Do you think they were awaiting delivery of the scratch cards?

 

[steve_cronin]

I think that IPC Need to be Selective.....

They surely know that the average intelligence of the average reader might just be ahead of that of say Sun readers. So maybe it's time to decline the revenue obtained from these dubious inserts declining them as "not in line with our perception of our average reader's profile". After all I don't see them including a "Personal Services" column in their small ads!

Steve Cronin

 

[robp]

Re: Not only that, but...

No they wouldn't do that.........Would they?

 

[Rowana]

Keep up with the training of your offspring. My 11 year old has now definately got a healthy amount of cynicism, just keep at it!

All part of being a parent!

 

[robp]

Yeah, I've been at it for 20 years but there's that magical age of innocence? Even my 20 year old tries to tell him but he has to play it out for himself!

I'm just going to take him to PBO's stand at the Boatshow and get him to phone the Scratch Card Co's from there.

 

[kimhollamby]

Re: Not only that, but...

I don't even need to check to tell you that mags are most certainly not held for the arrival of inserts. Inserts usually have a deadline to meet well ahead of all other deadlines and if they are not there in time, they don't go.

kim_hollamby@ipcmedia.com

 

[kimhollamby]

Re: I think that IPC Need to be Selective.....

I'm not sure that blatant pornographic images in a personal services classified section and these inserts are quite the same thing and it is also fully possible for PBO's discerning readership to get rind of the insert if they don't like it but I will alert the advertisment manager of the title to the emergence of this thread.

kim_hollamby@ipcmedia.com

 

[Cutter]

Re: I think that IPC Need to be Selective.....

I'm not so sure - the reprinted (enlarged) picture of Shadowfaxs naked mud wrestlers in YM certainly has opened some doors...

 

[robp]

Re: I think that IPC Need to be Selective.....

Kim I take your point about it being simple to throw these things away. As I mentioned, I do with most inserts. I do agree with Steve though that they are not what one would expect in a yottie mag. I'm sure that these people do not transgress the law but I find them an insult to the intelligence and would be interested to know how many winners and over what period. My gripe over.

 

[shamrock]

Re: I think that IPC Need to be Selective.....

I agree with previous posts - these things are a legal scam, and an insult to the intelligence of your readers. When my profressional orgnaisation, the Institute of Chemical Engineers, included one of these a few years back, the outcry from members was sufficient to see it never happened again. When I find one in a magazine I read, I question whether it means that the publication is 'dumbing down' and if so, where can I look for better alternatives.

 

[steve_cronin]

Both make you a poorer man...

One through your phone bill the other through your.... oh never mind!

Steve Cronin

 

[steve_cronin]

Didn\'t see much evidence of wrestling\"!...nm

..

 

[kimhollamby]

What I\'ve now discovered...

...is that the individual advertisement manager for PBO has not taken this booking - it was a part of booking taken across a wide range of titles by a corporate sales group here at IPC. The matter has now been raised with them although this is also apparently the first time we've had a formal complaint about the scratch cards in PBO.

kim_hollamby@ipcmedia.com

 

[DepSol]

Re: I think that IPC Need to be Selective.....

Why doesnt one person phone up and write down all the results and then post them on here, then everyone could scratch and check their card and if its worthless only one lot of £7 is wasted. I get the same ones in all the mags I buy and they dont change that often.

Dom

I am boating again ;-)

 

[robp]

Re: Thanks Kim....

for your usual dilligent follow up. The only complaint had to come from here didn't it?

Just grumpy cos it was a bad Solent weekend for motor boats.. Whoops!

Whingeing yottie.

How do you spell windgeing anyway?

 

[Twister_Ken]

So, PBO missed its deadline then? nm

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