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Sports Illustrated is once again trying to put a modern spin on its Swimsuit Issue. This time, advertisers are involved.
Yesterday, the magazine marked the 58th anniversary of the first print issue by announcing that it will “only allow brands who are helping drive gender equality forward” to run ads in the mag, starting with the next edition in May. According to Sports Illustrated, brands that can “prove they are creating change for women” will be able to buy ad space in the 2022 issue. And marketers can’t just run any old ad—ads must showcase “progress each brand is making” on the topic.
Up to snuff: Specific benchmarks or metrics were not included in the announcement.
- Courtney Mains, senior account supervisor at Edelman, which worked with Sports Illustrated on the initiative, told Marketing Brew that brands will be “vetted on a case-by-case basis by the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit team. The bottom line is that they need to show they are making change for women.”
- Hillary Drezner, general manager at Sports Illustrated Swimsuit, told Ad Age this “might take the form of an internal commitment to pay equity for female employees or an external commitment to challenging the status quo of what it means to be a woman by representing a more diverse range of women in marketing and advertising initiatives.”
Zoom out: Despite attempts to become more inclusive in recent years—last year’s edition featured Leyna Bloom, its first trans cover model—the Swimsuit Issue continues to get its fair share of criticism.
+1: Sports Illustrated reduced its publishing frequency to roughly once per month in 2020. Last year, Front Office Sports said the magazine had 1.7 million subscribers.—MS