Advertising: Glow-in-the-dark Advertising

Vice—the irreverent free glossy with 14 international editions based in New York—has figured out a new way to sneak an advertiser’s product onto its cover: glow-in-the-dark ink. The magazine’s Canadian edition is running an ad for BMW 1 Series—visible only in the dark—on the cover of its latest issue.

Shawn Phelan, director of sales and marketing at Vice's Toronto office, told Strategy, a Canadian marketing magazine that "Maintaining the integrity of our cover—which is not usually for sale—while delivering a unique brand message for BMW was an amazing challenge”. That’s because a glow-in-the-dark ad is a production department nightmare. According to Phelan, the magazine had to print its covers at one plant; ship them to another to add the glow-in-the-dark ink, a UV coat; then back to the original plant for binding.

Read more on Foliomag.com

India: Rubber Stamping of Maps delays Magazine Distribution

The Sunday Edition of Indian Express carries an article "Foreign magazine map is stamped, India is safe" that highlights how an archaic practice is delaying distribution of foreign publications in India.
Magazines that carry a map of India not conforming to the officially recognized boundaries, get delayed by at least two days as the Customs department stamps each map in every single copy with the message: “The external boundaries of India as depicted are neither accurate nor authentic”.
“While our magazine is to hit the stands on Mondays, we are only able to make it available on Wednesdays due to this whole map-stamping exercise. This is a problem in the competitive media world. You have a story which must be out on Monday but fails to do so.” says the bureau chief of a foreign news magazine. “Now that we are picking up circulation, it’s a pity such things can delay the magazine’s distribution so badly.”
The head of another reputed international news magazine says he faces the “rubber stamping” almost with every single issue. His predecessor is reported to have taken up the issue with officials concerned but it didn’t help.

Read the entire article here.