±±¾©Èü³µpk10

It is the first time I have bought copies of Nuts and Zoo, and I have a receipt to prove they are for a legitimate purpose. The back-page ad, read and re-read many times over the remainder of the journey to work, was for Right Guard Xtreme. It showed a 45-degree snowy mountainside slope, a warning sign that reads 'Danger Rocks' superimposed with a product shot, and the messages 'Too right it does' and 'Nothing's worth sweating over'.

It is a reasonable example of its kind: crafting the advertising creative to the editorial content.

This may be the editorial equivalent of visiting a lap-dancing club to assess the quality of the choreography. It's not the main attraction for most of the audience, which is, by and large, not populated by 'respectable' advertisers. In the week when both Nuts and Zoo reveal their first ABC figures, the difference between reader appeal and advertiser appeal couldn't be more stark. Of their combined 200 pages, there are 20 pages of advertising - not a great ratio, but adequate for six-month-old titles. Some of the advertiser highlights are: Right Guard Xtreme, which is the only advertiser to appear in both magazines; Lynx Get Fresh, curiously enough with another snowy mountain scene, this time made to look like breasts; Puma; and mobile operator/phone ads from T-Mobile, LG and Sony Ericsson.

So where are the rest of you? IPC and Emap could be forgiven for tearing their hair out with frustration. They provide 1.5m more opportunities each month to reach an elusive audience of young men, or 400,000 new readers, and advertisers stand on the sidelines pontificating. This is an untimely outbreak of moral rectitude from a number of industry sectors. While there are few who will openly admit to being put off by the volume of nudity and sexual content, it can be the only excuse that bears examination.

To keep 'premium' lager advertising out of the weeklies, to claim their readers will only buy second-hand cars, or to assume that £1000 suits are out of their price range, is archaic and inconsistent. Brands that might fall over themselves for a spot within Premiership coverage, or battle to become headline sponsors of an extreme sports event, are keeping Nuts and Zoo off their schedules - apparently blind to the fact that this audience, with its high disposable income, is one and the same.

Whether it is a fear of the new or the naked, advertisers should shrug it off and take their moral lead from the only source that matters - the readers and consumers.

- Full-frontal assault, page 19.