Mercedes Benz's ad policy isn't censorship, but … - News - Brief Article

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, Oct 15, 1993

A letter from Mercedes Benz's advertising agency, Scali, McCabe, Sloves, no sooner hit print than the scramble was on to "clarify" the German automaker's policy on magazine ad-buying and, finally, to rescind it. The letter, sent August 23, stated the company only wanted to run its ads in publications with "appropriate editorial," meaning those that did not contain negative mentions of German products.

Failure to pull its ads, even at the "eleventh hour," would result in "either non-payment or 100 percent makegood." Recipients were told to sign and return the letter to indicate compliance. About half of the roughly 30 magazines signed and returned it before the company rescinded the policy on September 17. (See "Wake-up call to ASME," page 22.) Obviously, the stakes were high: Mercedes Benz's 1992 magazine ad budget was $14.5 million, spread among 40 titles. In the letter sent to publishers, Albert Weiss, Mercedes Benz's general manager of marketing services, wrote that "in attempting to formalize what is generally accepted by the industry as normal practice, we have ended up being characterized as a company that is trying to leverage its advertising in order to stifle editorial content. Since that objective may now be clouded as a result of misinterpretation, this letter rescinds the original so that it is absolutely clear that it is Mercedes Benz policy never to interfere with editorial policy in any way."