Auto giants push harder for magazine product placement

Marketing executives at GM’s Hummer division, a frequent advertiser in the glossy culture magazine Black Book, have often said they want exposure outside traditional ad pages.

In Black Book's spring/summer issue, they got it. The magazine’s editors conceived of, wrote and printed a brief article about Ratatat, a hot young band whose songs have received wide exposure in the carmaker’s commercials. The accompanying photo pictured band members with a Hummer superimposed near their heads.

“There was and is absolutely no quid pro quo,” said Eric Gertler, CEO at Black Book Media. “Great editors know that great ideas come from a multitude of sources and great editors need to know how to frame those ideas and know that they are free of any outside influence.” But there may not have been any story without the automaker’s influence, according to executives close to the situation.

That influence is being felt more than ever this year as automakers from Toyota’s Lexus to Detroit’s Big Three and their agencies all apply new energy to penetrating the once-hallowed ad/edit wall. While pressure from advertisers is nothing new, the rising number of requests from car companies to magazines of all stripes seems to signal a potentially more slippery twist in the road. And automakers are increasingly being abetted by page-hungry magazines.

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