Print Ad Image: 

My name appeared on the front cover of a business magazine, or so I thought when it arrived. How important I felt! I very quickly realized that it was an advertisement on a false cover by Hutch to inform me that it’s now Vodafone. This was about two years ago. I later learnt that this kind of adverts on false covers are innovations referred to as cover-on-cover or jacket advertisements.

I was reminded of my experience by Sukumar Ranganathan's(Editor of The Mint) blog post. The editor's honesty in revealing the rules his publication is run by is admirable. Information providers amass a following by virtue of their content and its quality. The ability to produce quality content requires resources like human intellect, access to data that can be researched and production to name a few important ones. To make it affordable to readers information providers provision for advertisements. I tend to follow the school of thought that says advertisement is information when in context.

I wouldn't be too irritated if a magazine or a newspaper that was delivered home had a cover-on-cover jacket advertisement that hides the cover story. I would just glance and dive inside. I am not sure how good a cover-on-cover advertisement innovation is for a newspaper or magazine that’s sold on the stands. If I do not get to see the cover story/headline how am I to decide on the purchase. With the current pricing of magazines it’s almost a per issue decision. Even for magazines that I read often. It would be annoying, imagine I would have to request the shopkeeper and bear his demeaning look while I check.

Does a front page ad engage me more than an ad on a regular page? No, but if it’s a brand I love, a little pride and rush of blood is experienced. The jacket advertisement however easily interests others who are not interested in the magazine or newspaper itself.

The fact that the advertiser and publisher feel the message in the advertisement is important enough to jacket a cover story is many a time unconvincing. The jacket ad is an easy hurdle to overcome for a reader compared to the problems created when content and advertisement are mixed up, very few publishers retain my respect for not doing this.