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NEW RECIPE: Bon Appétit turned 50 last year, just in time to come under the knife — but only a little. Last spring, Matthew Lenning was installed as the magazine's first design director. "He's a protégé of Fred Woodward, the design director of GQ," said Bon Appétit editor in chief Barbara Fairchild. "As far as I'm concerned, you can't get better than that."
Since appearing on the masthead in July, Lenning already has made a few tweaks to the magazine's typeface and made things, in Fairchild's words, "easier to read." More changes are expected, but magazine editors — and their publicists — dislike the word redesign, with its implications of a broken machine. To wit: "There's nothing that we're worried about or need to fix. I just thought it was time to add this position and have the magazine have a freshening." And again: "We're going to be just doing things that are very much of the DNA of Bon Appétit, and shouldn't really raise too many eyebrows." In the first half of this year, Bon Appétit's newsstand sales were down 12.3 percent, though total circulation was flat and ad pages were up 6.1 percent. — Irin Carmon
BRA BANTER: Instead of long, seductive looks into the camera, à la Victoria's Secret, Playtex Intimate Apparel is taking the humorous approach in its new multimillion-dollar ad campaign, playing up "the girls," and no, that doesn't refer to the women wearing the bras. In a commercial for the Playtex Secrets bra, one phrase just about sums up the whole campaign: "When the girls are happy, I'm happy." Vicki Seawright, marketing director at Playtex, said the campaign — the most comprehensive in its history — speaks directly to the consumer by playing up how "real women talk amongst themselves."
The campaign is also unique in its allocation of ad dollars, with more emphasis placed online than ever before. This includes working with YouTube and American Greetings. Ads also will be aired on TV and published in magazines, including Glamour; O, The Oprah Magazine, and In Style. "This campaign represents Playtex's new approach to reaching women," said a spokeswoman. It also means Playtex more than doubled its online spending in this campaign versus previous ones. Seawright declined to provide specific figures, but offered that the campaign's Web site will include sending "Girl Talk" e-cards, a virtual bra fitter and submitting videos of personal bra stories. If only Jane magazine and its "Guide to Boobs" were around to see this now. — Amy Wicks
Since appearing on the masthead in July, Lenning already has made a few tweaks to the magazine's typeface and made things, in Fairchild's words, "easier to read." More changes are expected, but magazine editors — and their publicists — dislike the word redesign, with its implications of a broken machine. To wit: "There's nothing that we're worried about or need to fix. I just thought it was time to add this position and have the magazine have a freshening." And again: "We're going to be just doing things that are very much of the DNA of Bon Appétit, and shouldn't really raise too many eyebrows." In the first half of this year, Bon Appétit's newsstand sales were down 12.3 percent, though total circulation was flat and ad pages were up 6.1 percent. — Irin Carmon
BRA BANTER: Instead of long, seductive looks into the camera, à la Victoria's Secret, Playtex Intimate Apparel is taking the humorous approach in its new multimillion-dollar ad campaign, playing up "the girls," and no, that doesn't refer to the women wearing the bras. In a commercial for the Playtex Secrets bra, one phrase just about sums up the whole campaign: "When the girls are happy, I'm happy." Vicki Seawright, marketing director at Playtex, said the campaign — the most comprehensive in its history — speaks directly to the consumer by playing up how "real women talk amongst themselves."
The campaign is also unique in its allocation of ad dollars, with more emphasis placed online than ever before. This includes working with YouTube and American Greetings. Ads also will be aired on TV and published in magazines, including Glamour; O, The Oprah Magazine, and In Style. "This campaign represents Playtex's new approach to reaching women," said a spokeswoman. It also means Playtex more than doubled its online spending in this campaign versus previous ones. Seawright declined to provide specific figures, but offered that the campaign's Web site will include sending "Girl Talk" e-cards, a virtual bra fitter and submitting videos of personal bra stories. If only Jane magazine and its "Guide to Boobs" were around to see this now. — Amy Wicks
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