Phillips Electronics really does = simplicity

So I just learned that Phillips Electronics has paid Time Inc. $5 million dollars to move their table of contents to the front page of Time, Fortune, People and Business 2.0 magazines. I don't know about you, but I read the table of contents. I actually use it to find the articles teased in the cover lines. I mean, you're in the grocery store (a normal one, not the special-ed Safeways that I go to. It takes longer to get through line than it does to shop on ANY GIVEN DAY.) Sorry. So, you're in line and you pick up a mag because you see that something really great is inside. The fastest way to find it before your groceries reach the checkout lady is to use the TOC. But Nooooo! The TOC is buried somewhere in the first 12 pages of advertising. Some magazines (like Vogue) put their table of contents as far back as page 22!! Vibe this month has the TOC on page 14. The reason is because every advertiser knows that's what many readers are looking for so they want to be what you have to see before you get to the TOC. But the shit has gotten out of hand.

So Phillips is buying the space and including and flap ad that says: "Simplicity means not letting complexity stand in your way. It starts with the Table of Contents on the first page. And it continues with the last page where you'll see innovative products that will change the way you live." And of course, it's branded by Phillips. And then you put down the mag and run out for a simple electronic device made by Phillips.

It's really a win win. They get their prime ad space, readers get the TOC and magazines get mo money. A Time Inc. spokesperson told The Wall Street Journal that they didn't place the TOC anywhere they wouldn't have put it before. Yeah, right! For $5 million I'd tattoo a magazine's TOC on my left butt cheek. And the way Time Inc is laying staff off these days, there's no need to front.