home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- FROM THE PUBLISHER, Page 4
-
-
- He has been called "an iconoclastic genius," "a Superman of
- Madison Avenue," "a legendary advertising guru." George Lois
- modestly demurs: he prefers to think of himself as "a
- semi-legendary advertising guru." Naturally that made him the
- perfect choice for us. Beginning this month, Lois, the creative
- director of the New York advertising agency Lois/GGK, has taken
- charge of communicating TIME's editorial benefits to readers
- and advertisers across America.
-
- Master of the commanding tag line, Lois has distilled his
- message into four simple words: "Make Time for TIME." "The tag
- line addresses a real problem," says Lois. "People understand
- the value of TIME. But they live in a rat-race world where the
- challenge is finding time to read. So we're inviting people to
- carve out some quality time and get into this magazine." By
- January "Make Time for TIME" will have found its way to
- magazines, television, radio, newspapers, billboards and, given
- Lois' penchant for invention, perhaps some as-yet-undreamed-of
- place as well.
-
- Producing our ads is something of a high-wire act.
- Television ads featuring the current issue begin appearing
- Sunday morning, as the magazine goes to press. So they must be
- produced as editorial pages are being completed. The solution:
- a manic production schedule coupling satellite links, chartered
- trucks, postmidnight meetings -- in short, the general hubbub
- and commotion on which Lois thrives.
-
- This Bronx-reared Barnum has magazines in his blood. In the
- 1960s and '70s, working as a cover designer with the late
- editor Harold Hayes, Lois turned Esquire's cover into a gallery
- that registered every shock of those seismic years. As an adman,
- he taught America's children the insistent demand "I want my
- Maypo." In the early 1980s he recycled the line to meet their
- grownup tastes: "I want my MTV." And he's the man who told
- people, "When you got it, flaunt it" (for Braniff airlines,
- remember?), a pretty good description of his advertising ethos.
-
- Enthusiastic as he is about the new campaign -- and he owns
- a good share of the market on enthusiasm -- Lois offers one
- complaint: the production schedule interrupts his
- Saturday-morning basketball game. His new associates at TIME
- show no mercy. "George," they insist, "You have to make time for
- TIME."
-
-