The magazine became a victim of self-censorship by advertisers

At the beginning of this month, a new advertising campaign for Russian Newsweek magazine launched in Russia. The Ark Thompson agency developed a series of banners for her - each depicting hands making certain gestures with a short caption underneath.

There were no problems with placement on the Internet. Image banners appeared on the websites headhunter.ru, gazeta.ru, inosmi.ru, posttv.ru in due time. But problems suddenly arose with outdoor advertising.

The Moscow and St. Petersburg subways refused to place billboards. Advertising for lightboxes (lit from the inside of billboards) was rejected by five metropolitan office centers. The News Outdoor agency refused to provide Newsweek with space at public transport stops. As a result, banners appeared only at Pulkovo, Sheremetyevo and Domodedovo airports and on six plasma screens in Moscow.

The situation in the Tower 2000 business center is most paradoxical. The decision to refuse was made by one of the managers of Manezhnaya Ploshchad Management Company, the management company of the center. At the same time, the management of the management company and Tower-2000 LLC itself did not know about the negotiations or the refusal.

“We have different party members (in the building, in particular, there is the office of United Russia deputy Vladimir Gruzdev. - Forbes). Therefore, we will not host this. This is our inner conviction, and we will not discuss it with anyone,” the manager of Manezhnaya Ploshchad Management Company, who wished to remain anonymous, told Forbes. “I haven’t heard anything about this situation. I just saw the layouts, I can’t say that they confused me. This is kind of absurd. It is profitable for people (management company - Forbes) to make money. Why not?" - Deputy General Director of Tower-2000 LLC Natalya Andronova said in an interview with Forbes.

In their refusal, the Metropolitan employees relied on the letter of the law. Of the four posters, one (about the football championship) was still accepted. Representatives of the Olimp agency, which advertises in the metro, referred to clause 6 of Art. 5. Law “On Advertising”, prohibiting “the use of swear words, obscene and offensive images, comparisons and expressions...”. However, there are no swear words or obscenities in advertising posters.

“Our lawyers say this is more of a political issue. There are no direct offensive images in our advertising, but if they want to bring this advertising under clause 6 of Art. 5. Federal Law “On Advertising”, they will be able to do this, given that they are a monopoly and a state structure,” says Olga Kochubeeva, a representative of the Strategist agency (representing the interests of Newsweek).

News Outdoor's refusal sounded even more delicate. The leader of the outdoor advertising market officially told Newsweek representatives that it does not have any free spaces for targeted placement. And in a telephone conversation he explained that the models were “political and provocative.” A source at News Outdoor told Forbes that the advertising layouts were not submitted to the legal department for consideration, and, apparently, they were “cut up” by the sales department specialists themselves.

“We are outraged. On what basis are these people refusing us? Our product meets all legal requirements. But they think that just making a joke, for example, about the economy, is already undermining the foundations. It's funny and ridiculous: censorship coming from middle managers. So they will soon be afraid to tie their shoelaces in an ideologically incorrect way,” says Newsweek magazine editor-in-chief Mikhail Fishman.

The Newsweek advertising story is not the first case of censorship on the part of the owners of advertising structures. In 2007, Esquire magazine launched an advertising campaign based on quotes from famous people published in the magazine. News Outdoor rejected billboards with a quote from rock musician Bono, who compared politics to the production of sausages: “If you know what’s in there, you’ll never eat it.” The citation for the News Outdoor-owned billboards had to be changed.

A similar situation arose with the radio station “Business FM”, which in March of this year was going to place billboards with the slogan “What percent of officials take bribes” on the Gallery company’s billboards? Answer: 87.5" and "How many days will the government last? Answer: 87.5." The slogans were not passed by the Moscow Advertising Committee. As a result, the radio station had no outdoor advertising at all, but the slogans were successfully placed in the printed press.

Owner of the agency “Amlinsky. Creative strategies” Andrei Amlinsky says that he regularly encounters similar situations in his practice: “A special type of self-censorship has arisen - a Soviet man bitten by capitalism. These people reasoned: why spoil relations with the authorities for the sake of some magazine, which in this way is trying to capitalize itself and make money? The result is immorality based on finances.”

The subway was afraid of Newsweek advertising