OK this I like — and it’s not nearly as gloomy. Although, the whole “our entire company is going to focus on going green for 30 days” idea just reminds me of global warming (which is of course what it is meant to do), but that is kind of gloomy. So here’s the story — morning glory: All 14 of the Hearst Publications titles are participating in a program this month, whereby all editorial content will have a “green” focus. For instance, in Cosmo we’re going to get tips about how to keep the bedroom green (i.e. natural lube and bamboo sheets).
This program, entitled “30 Days of Green,” is the latest take on Hearst’s latest cross-title advertising programs that focus on genre themes. Yet, previously the themes were carried out through special promotional advertisements, and ran in a limited number of the Hearst books.
So who’s sponsoring this whole thing? eBay! So the lovely little (hah!) auction site gets to have a big old gatefold advertising space that wraps each title’s green edition.
While this all sounds cool, it goes back to the fear that many are having in these tense economic time. With increased pressure to satisfy advertisers through special arrangements and programs, are clients taking over the content? According to a Hearst executive, each publication was given an extra two pages, with which they were prompted to fill with green content.
