[Gary]

Whilst browsing through the advertising section of a model railway magazine I noticed that it had started carrying adverts in a "Personal" section for premium rate lines. I found this a little disconcerting as given that railway modelling already has an anorak image this seems to reinforce it.

It gives me the impression that the advertising manager is desperate for ways to generate new sources of revenue.

Given that the big manufacturers like to feel that railway modelling has a family image then in my view they should put pressure on model railway magazines who are carrying such advertising.

Any magazine seen to be carrying inapropriate advertising should immediately be removed from the review sample list.

How do others feel about this?

Happy modelling
Gary

 

[pedromorgan]

which magazine?

Peter

 

[Gary]

Do you want to ring the line? I doubt that you will hear sounds of steam trains!

If somebody else wishes to provide the name feel free however on this occasion on a point of principal I personally would prefer not to name names and promote the magazine involved in a public model railway forum. Sorry but thats just how I am.

This is not about naming and shaming. It is about the principal of what is and isn't acceptable avertising in a model railway magazine. If I want to ring a premium line I will buy The Sun newspaper and I do buy The Sun as its a bit of light reading on holiday and the kids always comment when I am reading the news on page 3!

I buy British model railway magazines for an entirely different reason and to see more premium rate advertising appearing seems like an invasion into a world previously devoid of such material and a European thing so this seems to be another example of Euro creep into British life.

Happy modelling
Gary

 

[pedromorgan]

gary i dont think anyone would disagree with your principles. but i still dont understand why you wouldnt name a magazine.
Its not naming and shaming at all.
I too think that this is a very bad step for whichever magazine it is that you are refering to. perhaps if we knew the magazine then we could write to the editor but as you seem unwilling to provide the name then we cant.

I remember seeing personal adverts in railway modeller a few years ago but they seemed like what i would term "honest" personals and not premium numbers. i have not noticed them recently.

"this seems to be another example of Euro creep into British life." oah come on gary you know better than that? have you ever walked through Soho on a saturday night? i hate it when people tarnish "europe" with the same brush. we are 27 countries with 27 ways of life. (the only people who dont understand that are the MEP's!)
Of far more concern to me is the behaviour of young brittish tourists when they go abroad.

Having said that i know a few modellers who i have to admit i would term exactly the type of person who would call a premium line.

Peter

 

[pedromorgan]

i have just found what i asume gary was talking about.

Its in Model Rail

Peter

 

[Doug]

I don't know why didn't mention it Gary. It is a fact. Model Rail are not going to litigate over the fact that you are saying that they are allowing premium rate ads in the personals.

What are the ads for? Are they railway related?

 

[Gary]

They are typical telephone premium rate adverts as mentioned above and are not railway related. I'm not sure if you get them in France as there is a different culture and I don't think the typical French male would bother to ring them!

Happy modelling
Gary

 

[pedromorgan]

QUOTE (Gary)They are typical telephone premium rate adverts as mentioned above and are not railway related. I'm not sure if you get them in France as there is a different culture and I don't think the typical French male would bother to ring them!

Happy modelling
Gary

Try going to north east Paris in the evening!!
Peter

 

[Bilbo]

I'm with Gary on this one, I did notice them and I didn't feel they were right for the kind of magazine it is.

 

[Brian Considine]

QUOTE (pedromorgan @ 6 Jul 2007, 10:17) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>loah come on gary you know better than that? have you ever walked through Soho on a saturday night?

Peter

Maybe they wont give Gary a visa for his Midlands passport to go to Soho !

 

[Gary]

There are areas of both London and the Midlands that I have walked through at night and the environment is exactly as hinted at above and it is not really an environment for the family. Its more an environment with which to start a family!

My expectations of a model railway magazine are somewhat different!

Happy modelling
Gary

 

[44/45/46's]

ive been disgruntled with model rail for a few month now and now it seems the advertising side is completly dominating the content and now they are advertising these pathetic phone ads in my own personal opinion its just same as everything else greed greed greed when my sub runs out this month i dont think i shall bother renewing

 

[Gwent rail]

I'm more than a little disappointed with Model Rail.
Six months or more ago, I would have said it was my preferred magazine, but recently the only consistently good contribution has been from Alan Downes.
I had intended to take out a subscription, but if they want to make money from premium rate advertising of a dubious nature, they can do so without my annual fee.
I'm no prude, but my nine year old grandson is starting to take quite an interest in railway modelling and reads my magazines avidly. Not a magazine with "dubious" premium rate adverts printed in it, he doesn't!!
No more subscription, no more Alan Downes articles, No more Model Rail. Not until they decide who they want as thier readership at least.

 

[goedel]

QUOTE (Gary @ 6 Jul 2007, 09:39) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>The Sun as its a bit of light reading on holiday and the kids always comment when I am reading the news on page 3!
Call me old-fashioned in this shallow hyper-sexualised era if you like but surely exposure to soft pornography is worse for your children's moral fibre and degree of respect for women than a small advertisement for salacious chat at £1 per minute in the magazine-that-shall-not-be-named? Kids find advertisements the height of boring surely?

That such magazines are stooping so low is surely just more evidence that every day they become less relevant to us, with our forums and broadband and impartial reviews and hosted videos etc. and will eventually die off as we evolve beyond a need for them...

QUOTE to see more premium rate advertising appearing seems like an invasion into a world previously devoid of such material and a European thing so this seems to be another example of Euro creep into British life.
I have to say I find this offensive and untrue, to smear continental Europe or Europeans as smutty, and espcially as more so than the British!! The UK manages to have the highest proportion of single-teenage-mothers all by itself with no help from the rest of Europe! I have never seen such advertising in a German model railway magazine although I suppose perhaps the ones I read are quite serious...

Goedel

 

[neil_s_wood]

QUOTE (pedromorgan @ 6 Jul 2007, 19:51) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>i have just found what i asume gary was talking about.

Its in Model Rail

Peter
Thanks for that Peter, I may have been unable to get to sleep tonight if I hadn't found that out!

I guess it's those diesel modellers lowering the tone of things.

 

[M8 INTERNET]

You are going to get unrelated adverts in most magazines
Overall, 95% of the content and adverts will relate to railways, models, or model railways
I am quite sure you can find other adverts that do not fall into this category (take Railway Modeller as another example)

However, what you don't expect would be is an "inappropriate" advert, and this do not fall into that category
Another EMAP publication (formerly RAIL Enthusiast) had a change of Advertising Manager and there was a great increase in "appropriate" adverts, which resulted in both a fall in subscriptions and an increase in complaints
The magazine published a small apology and reduced the space available for them, and eventually the advertiser withdrew due to their own reduction in revenue
The best place to complain about such adverts is the magazine themselves, but they will give you same speel as EMAP normally do, all about their magazines having to raise revenue through all forms and types of advertising, and how such adverts meet the ASA requirements
Personally, just don't buy the magazine
Furthermore, update the review and place a disclaimer that some readers may find the adverts do not fall into appropriate categories

 

[alastairq]

I cannot see a problem.

In fact, I didn't see the advert!

which shows how much impact it had?..[with me, anyway]

As with an unwanted television programme, one can always 'turn off', or in this case, ignore?

Personally, I ignore a lot of ads, both in Model Rail, and especially in the occasional RM I now purchase.(wet weekends, feeling poorly, etc)...simply because they are endless listings, in print so small, I'd have to make a special effort to find a big enough magnifying glass to read..... or are small ads simply advising me of a shop somewhere I'll never likley go to, telling me they sell Hornby and Bachmann.....wow!

In fact, the only ads I do look at are in Wild Swan's MRJ......which seem interesting and informative!

However, revenue [from whatever source] ensures continued production.

I would not like to think Model Rail disappeared from the bookstalls, through lack of finance, simply because we as readers attemtped to limit their fundraising activities?

Plus, someone somewhere, might just wish to avail themselves of the services offered.

it takes all sorts?

 

[neilwhitaker]

I must admit too that my eyebrows were raised when I saw these adverts. I can't be certain but I'm sure I saw them in Steam Railway as well.

I also read certain music and film magazines from EMAP and similar adverts appear in them too, so it could be that it is blanket advertising throughout certain EMAP magazines and maybe Model Rail does not have the final say in this policy.

Personally, it doesn't really bother me as I'm not gullible enough to call these lines and, in any case, I have the local free newspaper in front of me and there are dozens of premium call adverts that are much worse plus several more offering other dubious services (I only saw these in passing, mind

).

Maybe its just the way of the world nowadays.

But yeah, they do seem out of place in railway mags and perhaps those adverts shouldn't be run in them.

 

[Dinwiddy]

QUOTE (50023 @ 14 Jul 2007, 17:47) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Personally, it doesn't really bother me as I'm not gullible enough to call these lines and, in any case, I have the local free newspaper in front of me and there are dozens of premium call adverts that are much worse plus several more offering other dubious services (I only saw these in passing, mind

).

Maybe its just the way of the world nowadays.

But yeah, they do seem out of place in railway mags and perhaps those adverts shouldn't be run in them.

Yep I quite agree - they seem to crop up in strange places these days. In similar vein when i first went on the internet, as a Garden Railway fan I typed in 'Live Steam' and was somewhat surprised by what was thrown up. I am much more careful now!
Dinwiddy

 

[7113]

Dinwiddy - a few years ago we typed in IGRA, a maker of 1/87 road vehicles and part of the Rietze company. I didn't know there was such a thing as the International Gay Rodeo Association!

Regards