ALEVE BULLIES MAGS

From Media Buyer Planner

"Aleve, the pain reliever from Bayer HealthCare, has told magazine publishers that in order to advertise in a magazine, the brand must be guaranteed placement with content that is "explicitly branded as 'good news,'" the publisher of a major national magazine told Mediapost. According to the article, every magazine in which the brand plans to advertise has been told the same thing.

While the magazine declined to accept the advertising, print media buyers have said that if magazines don't begin to cooperate with advertisers' requests for branded content such as this, it will seriously stunt the growth of the magazine industry. "They won't be able to compete with other media," said one.

A Bayer spokeswoman confirmed that the "good news" theme was part of an advertising and marketing campaign that Aleve has been running."