Vanity Fares Poorly in the Recession
June 11, 2009
My July issue of Vanity Fair arrived yesterday. I love Vanity Fair for its smart, interesting profiles, gorgeous photography and for the pages and pages of lush advertising. It is always like a trip to Europe first class. Something was different this time. There was the irreverant, sensual Johnny Depp on the cover, but the magazine felt flimsy in my hands. I opened it up. There were all the features, the various columns and frothy little bits. But where were all the advertisements? Where are the pages of Dolce & Gabbana, Ralph Lauren, Chloe and Burberry. Where is BMW? Tiffany? Absolut? David Yurman? They are all gone. 200 pages of advertising disappered. I found the March issue lying around, all 332 pages of it. The july issue is only 128 pages. The luxury goods world has packed up its ad budgets into their Louis Vuitton trunks and put them storage. Watch this space….
June 18, 2009 at 10:52 pm
I thought exactly the same thing. I ended up reading the Nancy Regan article because I took the magazine on a flight. The rest of the feature stories on the economy were not what I was looking for. Left it on the plane without reading anything else.