20 February 2009

Things I Didn't Know Existed

1. This:



2. And this:

9 comments:

Harry Eagar said...

'As seen in Maxim' !?

About 3 years ago, I had the choice of losing some frequent flyer miles or using them to get magazines.

The choices were golf and lad mags, so I got Radar, Maxim and a couple others for a year. Man, were they lame.

I don't think anybody has ever seen anything in Maxim.

joe shropshire said...

Blecch -- didn't know and didn't really want to. Something to wash your ears out with, here.

Hey Skipper said...

Five or so years ago I got suckered in by a kid trolling the neighborhood to get money to go to [some worthy thing I can't remember].

Thought I'd give Scientific American another try.

Got Maxim instead. So incredibly lame that after the first month I called them to tell them where the rest of the year belonged.

Hard to say, though, whether it is more lame than SA.

David said...

I showed the website to my students as an example of a focused, differentiated product strategy. What I find most amazing is how expensive their products are.

Harry Eagar said...

I hadn't noticed the prices. I guess you have to pay for high concept.

joe shropshire said...

So do I. I should've thought nobody would drive a harder bargain than a guy who is willing to be buried in his coffee table.

Seriously, now. This is the sort of stuff that sings to the sort of customer who has a little, ah, confusion, amongst their various impulses, and who has that sort of money, and is getting ready to die. Very nearly the same sort of guy who signs himself up for a subscription to Maxim, completely by accident. Price is not going to be an overriding concern.

David said...

Joes: Apparently their customers tend to be Gen-X'rs.

Harry Eagar said...

Just guessin', but I would suppose they are not only Gen Xers but goths who made a pile in, one imagines, the dope trade.

It's mildly creepy but as an economic hmmm-maker, no more so than a Manolo Blahnik shoe. Maybe even less so.

David said...

Also a focused, differentiated strategy.