Last but not least: It's just advertising - and the children like it
While many publications are struggling to attract advertisers, the free children’s magazine *Maky* seems to be inundated with ads. Children have long been of interest to advertisers, because there’s money to be made today from the consumers of tomorrow.
The colorful booklet is available in pharmacies, drugstores and other stores and entices readers with puzzles, short stories and handicraft instructions. These are hidden somewhere between advertising and publicity reports. In the 68-page December issue, for example, there are 28 pages of advertising and 22 pages of publicity reports. There are just 18 pages of purely editorial text. The Tagesanzeiger took a closer look at the issue: The WWF entices readers with a cute giraffe, with the slogan "Join the Panda Club!" at the bottom. An advertisement for a new craft book by Betty Bossi is also disguised, although the advertisement can be found behind a set of craft instructions. What's more, it is almost impossible to distinguish between advertising and stories. Urs Lerf, publishing director and editor of the booklet, defends the concept: children cannot be protected from everything and the earlier they learn to deal with good - i.e. non-violent - advertising, the better they will cope. Of course, not everyone likes the booklet, Lerf continues. But he receives a lot of positive feedback from the children. Well, then everything is fine!
