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HBO Sole Sponsor of The Week

HBO will be the sole sponsor of the June 16 issue of The Week, Mediapost reports.  All the ads will be part of a single photo spread featuring the stars of HBO’s drama Deadwood, which kicked off its third season of 12 episodes yesterday. The move will probably renew the branded editorial content debate raised when The New Yorker devoted all the advertising in its Aug. 22, 2004 edition to retail marketer Target.

In its aftermath, the American Society of Magazine Editors scolded The New Yorker and issued revised guidelines governing the separation of advertising and editorial content in consumer magazines during the American Magazine Conference last fall.

HBO only had to purchase 12 ad pages - a mixture of spreads and pages. HBO has also contracted for 100 taxi top ads for the show with the words “As seen in The Week” as part of the promotion. The Weekly’ ads are shot in black and white by photographer Albert Watson, who is known for his iconic celebrity portraits.

Last year, Lexus was at the center of a similar debate about blurring the line between editorial and advertising content - including modified “advertorial”-type stories that would not be labeled advertorials and would be written by magazine staff writers - making it difficult, if not impossible, to distinguish as a paid advertisement.