RE: BoSacks Readers Speak Out: 

Elle, Cosmo to Include Actual Vials Of Perfume

RE: BoSacks Speaks Out: Elle, Cosmo to Include Actual Vials Of Perfume

As a matter of fact, I do have a story. And yes, it is true.

My first job as a journalist was back in 1957 when I joined the Indiana Farmers Guide that at the time was America's oldest farm magazine.

It was a tabloid sized newsprint bi-weekly publication with a circulation of 100,000 and staff of about 20 people including the press operators. We were housed in a very old building with wood floors and big single-paned windows for opening on hot days.

A few years before, the editor was trying to come up with some unusual way to promote an upcoming field day at Purdue University's Muck Crops Research Station.

After much discussion, someone suggested that since mint was the most important crop studied at the station, why not add mint oil to the printing ink to draw attention to the field day. Even Slim who ran the Linotype machine in the back room thought that was a great idea.

No one, however, knew how much oil to add to the ink. Nor did anyone realize mint oil is so volatile that odor from just one drop can spread throughout a large room in less than a minute.

Although no one noted how much oil was used, within a very short time after the press was started everyone was coughing and tearing up so much they could hardly see.

There was a great sense of relief when the last truck of magazines left the loading dock headed for the U.S.Post Office's main distribution center in Indianapolis.

The next day, the editor received an urgent call from the Postmaster in Indianapolis who was so mad and frustrated he was shouting into the phone.

He was, he said, being flooded with phone calls from coughing and sniffling mail carriers all over the state who were having to drive with their windows open because of the mint smell coming through the mail sacks. His final close-out message to the editor: Don't you ever, ever do that again!

Nor was that point lost on the magazine staff. Good riddance, they said, when nearly a month later, the last smell of mint finally left the building.

(Submitted by a Writer)

RE: BoSacks Speaks Out: Elle, Cosmo to Include Actual Vials Of Perfume

I was working on a custom half million run magazine that was being distributed to drug stores. Advertiser wanted to put Tiger Balm packets as a tip in insert inside the book.

I was pretty dubious on the success of this as I felt the packets would burst during binding and/or stacking the magazines (we were packing 50 mags per carton).  So, I decided to perform my own "burst test". The sales rep brought me some samples of the packet. I put one down on my desk and smacked the packet. Hard. The packet burst open and sprayed the Tiger Balm all over my office. My office smelled like a locker room for weeks afterward.

This of course is not the end of the story. Despite my demonstration, the publisher decided it was worth the risk. Of course, during binding, dozens of packets exploded. The printer had to bring a Haz-Mat team in to clean the mess on their binders.

Another time, a restaurant magazine wanted to bind sample packets of bar b que sauce. I asked the advertiser to send me samples. The advertiser thought I wanted to taste the sauce and sent me a case of bottles.

And, you really don't want to know about the time when a condom manufacturer wanted to supply inserts with condoms tipped. This was going to go to colleges. I shudder to think of the lawsuits we would have faced over accidental pregnancies had we run the insert. It's bad enough that we were banned from a bunch of Catholic colleges for simply running the print ad!  I really miss those days! (for real!)

(Submitted by a former Dir MFG/DST)

RE: BoSacks Speaks Out: Elle, Cosmo to Include Actual Vials Of Perfume

One of the most challenging issues we had to deal with was a claim that a cover mounted  3 1/2" floppy disk mounted on copies of Computer Shopper magazine in the UK contained a virus.

The distributor was threatening to pull all copies from the shelves - a newsstand distribution of over 150,000 - it would have been a financial disaster. Certain that we had been scrupulous in scanning the master disk we requested a stay of a couple of hours to try and work out what had happened.

We were able to track the buyer of the magazine whose computer had been infected and then traced back to the news agent where the magazine had been purchased. We rushed around to talk to the owner - after a lot of of questions we were able to finally unravel the mystery.   The newsagent's son was  a keen reader of Computer Shopper and had taken a copy of the magazine off the shelf, loaded the

disc into his computer and unknowingly passed a virus from his  computer to the disc. Once he'd finished copying the programs off the disc and not realizing there was anything wrong  - he calmly re-taped the disc back on the magazine and placed it back on the shelf for sale where is was soon purchased.  Sherlock Holmes would have been proud!