The Last Ever Issue

Background

In Poland, even in 2019, women were marginalised, patronised and everyday sexism was still acceptable.

The right-wing government was allied with the Catholic church to enforce a heteronormative Catholic family model and to do away with women’s reproductive rights.

For most people, including the progressive westernised middle class, gender issues still felt abstract. To create change, people needed to be challenged to make gender issues as mainstream as the oldest adult magazine in the country.

Idea

For 27 years, “Your Weekend”, one of Poland oldest and most widely-read porn magazines, had reduced women to sex objects.

In December 2018, when it was up for sale, VMLY&R persuaded their client Gazeta.pl, a leading Polish news portal, to join forces with Mastercard and BNP Paribas, two brands with a long-term commitment to empower women, to buy the publication.

The idea was to create the very last issue of “Your Weekend” and use it to challenge the culture of sexism and gender inequality in Poland.

Published on International Women’s Day, it promoted diverse and progressive narratives of femininity.

The regular sections and columns were kept but the content was reimagined around sex education, gender portrayal, equal rights, sexism and more.

“Your Weekend” became the symbol of an end to an era and of the beginning of a much- needed national conversation.

Results

The campaign organically reached 4.5 million people and generated 25 million media impressions (Poland’s adult population is c.a. 28 million).

“The Last Ever Issue” content generated 500,000+ visits to gazeta.pl and was featured as the main story on gazeta.pl’s biggest competitor’s news site, onet.pl.

The online edition was the best-selling e-magazine in Poland in March 2019. The magazine became the best-selling issue of “Your Weekend” in ten years.

Our Thoughts

People say print is on its knees but this idea and the Vogue campaign (pages 72-73) show that it is alive and kicking when it is used with purpose.

This last issue of “Your Weekend” tackled a social issue head on for the only time in its entire life just as Vogue chose to discuss the issue of ageism for the first time in its own history. Result, people outside the usual readership of both titles took notice.

The other (rather inspiring) feature of this idea is how the agency was the catalyst for change, bringing together three brands in a collaborative effort to make the world a slightly better place. This is what the best agencies are doing these days, having ideas that give their clients’ brands identifiable and actionable principles.