Emap Finds Size Does Matter In Nuts Contest

Emap Elan has been rapped by the Advertising Standards Association following a complaint from rival IPC over a claim that men’s weekly title Zoo is “The Biggest Men’s Weekly”.

IPC’s complaint was that the title’s claim related to circulation and was factually incorrect, as its weekly men’s offering, Nuts, has a weekly circulation 90,000 higher than that of Zoo.

However, Emap’s defence that the claim related to the titles’ number of pages was also found to be false, as the publisher was forced to admit an embarrassing defeat and agree not to use the claim in the future.

According to the ASA, both magazines had 108 pages at the time the claim appeared; it noted, however, that Zoo magazine had included an 8-page pull-out section in its page numbering, whereas Nuts magazine had not included its 16-page pull-out section.

The watchdog also noted that both magazines had described their pull-out sections as “free”, and that because Zoo magazine had included the pull-out section in the standard pagination of the magazine, it should not have been described as “free”.

The ASA ruled that, because each magazine had 108 pages in total, the advertisers had not justified the claim “The Biggest Men’s Weekly”.

The men’s weekly market has seen something of a tumultuous start, with closely fought competition between Nuts and Zoo as well what amounted to a false start for H Bauer’s weekly offering, Cut, which was put under review just three months after its launch (see Cut Could Face The Chop After Thirty-Day Review).

ASA: 020 7580 5555 www.asa.org.uk Emap: 01733 568 900 www.emap.co.uk IPC Media: 0870 4445000 www.ipcmedia.com

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