In the Winter ’79 issue of SAM I wrote an opinion piece entitled, “Some rude thoughts on ski movies.” It complained about the “godawful sameness” of today’s ski movies. A California soul-mate, Wolfgang Lert, responded with a challenge: “If you think the movies are repetitive, what about the covers of Ski and Skiing?”
And so, we present for the first—and last—time ever, a dizzying intellectual contest: Which cover is Ski and which is Skiing? There are six of each, selected from the past three seasons, and that’s all we’ll tell you. There are no cash prizes—just honor—so anyone may enter, even employees and their families. What the hell, even the editors themselves may enter and confuse themselves.
But, to be fair, the front cover of a magazine that appears on the newsstands is designed to SELL. It must reach out and grab the customer; its cover “blurbs” must appeal to a broad spectrum of skiers and about-to-be skiers; it must compete on the stands for the consumer’s impulse reading dollar with hundreds of other magazines appealing to every conceivable special interest. It must have a poster effect of immediacy, and must strike an immediate responsive chord in the potential buyer.
It is no game; it is serious business that affects not only total sale, but also the circulation base for future advertising sales. It is, perhaps, the seriousness of the game that makes these magazines so very conservative.
But the conservativeness has resulted in triteness and cliches that destroy individuality of these fine publications. That’s none of our business, I suppose, but there is an indirect lesson to be learned by ski areas when preparing brochures, advertising, posters etc., which should capture the spirit of—and sell—the uniqueness of the area to the public, just as these covers should be giving promise of the editorial excellence between the covers in which they don’t.
Interestingly enough, the sales figures bear out the suggestion of ineffectual triteness. The two top newsstand sellers for Ski this past season were the two that were out of the mold: 1) the December issue, with Billy Kidd coming through the trees—a very stylish, moody cover with almost no color values at all—which many staffers thought would bomb; and 2) the arresting and forceful February cover with its mogul theme, for which disaster was also predicted.
Looking back over the years one can see similar patterns in front covers. In the 1960’s everyone was jumping off cornices on the covers of Ski and Skiing. Then they went into a period of contrived artiness, in which it was either triumph or disaster, with little inbetween. And finally into today’s dreary “Hey! Isn’t-this-fun” turns, always with gaping Ultra-Brite smiles.
The arms out, fly-like-a-bird GT Model
OK, girls, let’s see those Ultra-Brite teeth
A ski on the wild side—but keep smiling
So now, astute readers, test your skills on our exciting game. No cheating, and answers on Page 24. We’ll give you just one hint: Skiing’s cover skiers can turn either direction, but for some reason, Ski’s only turn to the right.
