#169 Blog Post - Tuesday, 4 October 2022

Posted by Denny Hatch

Your Private Collection of 190 CarAds.
Oops! Sorry! All Are Virtually Unreadable.

AnnouncingThe World's Strangest New Magazine—
EntirelyMade up of Two-page Car Advertisements

Okay,the Ford Bronco spread above is not an advertisement. But it sure as helllooks to me like an ad. Actually, this is the editorial content of a strange new magazine. What's more, it is indeed virtually unreadable. The copy at leftis white type surprinted over a busy field of long grass and weeds.  Here's the text:

Last week I stumbled across the fascinatingstory of  the launch of this magazine by Samir Husni, Ph.D. (a.k.a. "Mr.Magazine). For decades Dr. Husni has chronicled the magazine industry, especially delightingin every new magazine that appears.

I have long felt a bit of a kinshipwith Dr. Husni having spent 30 years publishing the newsletter, WHO'SMAILING WHAT! and constantly learning everything I could about directmail—design, copy, readability and ultimately results.

Here is Dr. Husni's lede for the story:

The Two Page Spread: A New Auto Magazine Where Content Is A Beautiful Experience… A Mr. Magazine™ Launch Story

 https://mrmagazine.wordpress.com/2022/09/26/the-two-page-spread-a-new-auto-magazine-where-content-is-a-beautiful-experience-a-mr-magazine-launch-story/

BelowAre 4 Additional Twp-page Thumbnails
From This Year's Oddest-designed New Magazine

1. Curious Design: I inserted the vertical white linesseparating each these four 2-page spreads to represent the magazine's gutter. Asa result, every automobile is cut in half. Hardly world-class design.

2. All copy is virtually unreadable. The designer pummels every accepted rule oftype fonts, backgrounds and readability.

Rules For Making Print CopyReadable.
• “Never set your copy in white type on a black background and never set itover a gray or colored tint. [Or a busy, mottled background.] The old school ofart directors believed that these devices forced people to read the copy; wenow know that they make reading physically impossible.”
—David Ogilvy

• "Avoid gray walls oftype." —David Ogilvy

• "Nothing is lessinviting than a solid page of text with nothing to break it up or catch theeye."
—Ed Elliott

“Aningenious sequence of boldly displayed crossheads (mini-headlines) can deliver the substanceof your entire pitch to glancers who are too lazy to wade through the text.”
—David Ogilvy

• “Aftertwo or three inches of copy, insert your first mini-headline [crosshead], andthereafter pepper them throughout. They keep the reader marchingforward.”
—David Ogilvy

   •"Type smaller than 9-point is difficult for most
       people to read." —David Ogilvy

• Experts urge the use serif type (e.g., Times, Garamond)for copy in printed material and sans serif (e.g., Verdana, Helvetica) indigital communications.

• "Design is important, but copy is king."
—Malcolm Decker

You Invited to Contrast These Two-pageSpreads
With Ogilvy's Two-page Masterpiece for Rolls Royce

Click Above to see this Ogilvy ad jumbo size.

Click Below to Make Your Product Unique and Sexy

http://dennyhatch.blogspot.com/2018/08/17-how-to-make-your-product-or-service.html

Takeaways to Consider

• Here'syour private access to 190 spreads from the magazine.

•Click on: 
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063747930702&sk=photos

•ScrollDown and click on any of the 190 thumbnails.

•Grabany thumbnail and slide it onto your screen as a jpg.

•Click on this jpeg and it immediately becomes a giant two-page spread.

•Under normal circumstances, the type on these pages would be easily readable. Theproblem is a designer who believes it is more important to make all copy tolook "pretty" and "arty" rather than readable... and who spells "Art" with acapital F.

Ifyou disagree with me on this, I'd love to hear your thinking.

Thank you.

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