chaplin

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

"Will this do?"

We all know fashion magazines are not like life but would it kill the people that work on them to make it clear to the readers from time to time that they recognise what a farce it is and they're actually on their side and not the PRs?
The cover of this week's edition of Grazia proclaims "Kate Moss talks to Grazia".
Now clearly she didn't say anything of consequence because that would have been splashed all over the cover but even low expectation readers like myself were surprised by how little was lurking under the slug "Grazia world exclusive" inside - to wit, three pages of product shots of the new Top Shop range with comments on each item below that purported to come from Kate. Now it could be that when Kate opens her mouth such pearls as "it's such a pretty top. Its kaftan feel and fluid silk gives it a beachy feel" pop straight out. Or it could be this was written by a PR, retyped by a hackette and then flung in the general direction of what they clearly believe is a fairly undiscerning public by people who really should know better.

11 comments:

  1. Anonymous3:49 pm

    But maybe Grazia's readers don't feel cheated by that cover strapline? Perhaps they're perfectly satisfied just browsing through three pages of Kate Moss Top Shop outfits.

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  2. Sadly, I don't think they give a monkey's. So many magazines have those 'Jennifer Aniston: The Truth!'-type coverlines, when all the mag contains is'friends say...'. It's awful, but the art of editing these magazines is being canny enough to cobble together some new nonsense that makes you appear to be hip to the tip.

    Kate Moss never gives interviews, in order, her agent told me, to preserve her mystique. Cynical old me thinks it's because she actually has nothing of any consequence at all to say.

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  3. she's the queen mother of our age she's been around seemingly for ever lives an expensive incosequential life and has never said anything of consequence in public and yet is in the papers most days.

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  4. Never bigged up a story then David?
    Never exaggerated the exclusivity, excitingness etc. of the contents of any of your magazines?
    Come come. Pot. Hue of kettle.
    I always think this sort of thing is counter-productive in the end. It’s like estate agents exaggerating how wonderful properties are. When you go round, inspect the grim reality and realise it’s not what was in the brochure, you just resent them for trying to sell you a pup.

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  5. Bigging up is one thing. Running a press release as if it's an interview is another. Hell, I don't bat an eyelid when I see magazine covers offering things that they can't deliver but the fact that this stopped an old hack like me in his tracks ought to tell you something. It annoys me even more because Grazia is the one that pretends to be a cut above everyone else while furiously re-heating leftovers that most people would just scrape into the bin.

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  6. Everyone's in search of that elusive exclusive. You see OK! trilling: 'Jordan: What I really think about those Kerry Katona rumours' tagged as a WORLD EXCLUSIVE!. Like anyone outside of a few British office girls could care less about what Jordan thinks.

    Or then there's 'BB7's Norman - first interview exclusive!', which is just quotes from the press conference.

    And so it goes on.

    The problem being, us who work in the media know all the tricks, but your average magazine-buying punter is absolutely none the wiser, hence they get away with this shit.

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  7. I would appreciate your take on the Richards/Vuitton hook-up if you've got a spare minute.

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  8. Clearly, Richards' face now looks brown and leathery, so he's just the man to sell brown leather goods.

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  9. The Keith Richards ad is tacky as far as I'm concerned because I always thought Louis Vuitton stuff was favoured by folks with more money than taste. Mind you, bet the marketing man who thought of it is being carried around in a sedan chair.

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  10. And will Keef's image be forever changed? Does he give a toss?

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  11. Anonymous9:40 pm

    David, don't get my started on Grazia. They (and here I mean the team working on it) are obsessed with Jennifer Aniston, even though she's now consigned to being a footnote in celeb popular culture.

    They purport to be more serious, simply because they focus on high-end fashion, rather than the high-street fashion that the likes of Look features.

    God, and I wonder why I got out of this kind of journalism a couple of years ago! :o(

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