The Secret of Getting on the Cover of People Magazine
In A Faith & Culture Devotional, Lael Arrington writes that, "When Princess Diana died suddenly and violently, the outpouring of grief dumfounded the royal family but confirmed People magazine editor Richard Stoley's set of rules for a successful cover." Those rules are:
Young is better than old. Pretty is better than ugly.
Rich is better than poor. TV is better than music.
Music is better than movies. Movies are better than sports.
Anything is better than politics.
And nothing is better than a celebrity who just died.
What do you think? Good rules? Bad?
They are neither good rules nor bad rules. They are accurate rules. Telling. Indicative of human nature. We like youth and beauty. We aspire to have money. We are possibly more capable of identifying with a person of fame when we see their face on a weekly basis than if we just listen to their voice. I'm not sure how I feel about music vs. movies vs. sports. But I do agree that people would likely rather escape to La La Land by reading about Angelina than pick up a cover with a politician on it. By picking a politician, the magazine could potentially lose 50% of it's readers. Yet Angelina is bipartisan. And it's totally in our nature to horde objects that have meaning. Even if it's a rock. So as soon as someone famous has died, the magazine with their image on it becomes more than just a magazine; it become a flat, easily storable, image-laden souvenir of that famous person's life.
Rules? or keen observation?
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