My Place in TIME

A lot of youts wonder what it is I do to earn my daily bread. In time, I hope to answer these questions. Today, I received a package in the mail at work shipped from London. In it, contained 5 copies of the 17-November issue of TIME magazine. One of our ads if featured in this issue and TIME was kind enough to ship me a few copies for my records. It is common practice for a paid advertiser to have copies of the magazine given to them by the publisher.

Right now you are saying to yourself, “Billy’s company paid for an ad in TIME magazine right after the US election. That’s swell.” Well, you are right to a degree but you neglect the full story:

I struck a deal with TIME magazine to allow us to advertise in their publication and online in exchange for brand exposure at our event in February. In order to meet a certain deadline, I needed our ad to run in mid-November for maximum effect. I chose this particular issue because it was the first worldwide issue released after the US election – I had a feeling this issue would sell well for its historical implications. Indeed, it was a ‘Commemorative Issue’:


Moreover, we were GIVEN one of the premium positions in the issue, the inside back cover. Only Andre Agassi, Breguet (expensive watch company), and Chevron received a better placement – suckers had to pay.

To recap, I received an inside back cover placement of my company’s ad in the worldwide issue commemorating Barack Obama as the first African-American elected to the President of the United States all for free.

This reflects only a small, but important, portion of my job. More will be explained in future posts.

Note: I cannot confirm if our ad ran in the US versions of TIME, but it did run throughout Europe, Asia, and South Africa.


Your Words Studs Terkel (1912-2008):

"You know, 'power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely'? It's the same with powerlessness. Absolute powerlessness corrupts absolutely. Einstein said everything had changed since the atom was split, except the way we think. We have to think anew."

"I like quoting Einstein. Know why? Because nobody dares contradict you."

"I was born in the year the Titanic sank. The Titanic went down, and I came up. That tells you a little about the fairness of life."