My last post about the race car on the cover (that probably belonged to a friend of the editor) got me thinking. There is so much that goes on behind magazine doors that no one knows about. I’ve been in this industry for nearly 10 years. I’ve seen it all firsthand.
We used to have an awesome relationship with several magazines and I’d like to think we still do with some. When you come into our showroom, you’ll see articles that we were featured in all over the walls. See!
Now, I can honestly say that 100 % of tech articles we did for the magazine were either for vehicles that belonged to an editor at the magazine or a friend of the editor. I recall a specific tech article that we did for a Chevy Tahoe that included installing a lift kit (which was given to the magazine for free for the feature), wheels, tires, the whole package. Well, the editor of the magazine needed his boat gel coated. It just so happens that was the specialty of the owner of the Tahoe. Free Tahoe makeover for a free boat makeover. Another friend of an editor got his entire garage made over with free products from advertisers so it became their own little mechanics garage. Now they can all take their own projects over their to work on them with all the free tools they got and take potential tech articles away from real shops. It was crazy to me how they were taking advantage of their advertisers.
After years of working with the magazines, we called it quits. Not only were these guys using us to get their cars and trucks tricked out for free on their advertisers dime but they were asking us to install terrible products. They weren’t interested in showing readers awesome products that they will love, they were interested in money. We were asked several times to install products that we knew were crap and they knew they were crap, but the manufacturer was an advertiser so they had to showcase the product somehow. There are just so many thing wrong with that. They are misleading readers. Telling them to use products that they know are sub par, just to make money.
(Disclaimer: Not all editors we have worked with do this kind of shady business. There are many wonderful dudes out there that actually care what they put into the magazines you read!)
