For most fashion magazines fall season ads are a huge source of revenue. Autumn, more than any time of year, is when brands spend big on high-profile print placements and, accordingly, your average September issue will have as many ads as editorial pages – or more! For magazine readers the means that the ads are necessarily a big part of viewing glossy. Rather than being merely pages to hurry past, fall ads are akin to magazine-produced content and shape the tastes and knowledge of print consumers.
And like photo stories, runway presentations, and models themselves, ad campaigns go through trend cycles. This season it seems many art directors have turned their back on color and instead opted for black and white shots. Even in shots that do have color, many have the tones turned so far down that they approach greyscale – as in the highly stylized campaign from Ports 1961 below. The trend in advertising seems to reflect the general mood in fashion, which right now prizes a subdued and minimal look.
