News Analysis: Anna is moving in a sensitive area
Audi man's inside joke turned into headline news
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By Jarmo Aaltonen
The Audi car brand and the Finnish women’s magazine Anna were caught in the midst of a nasty autumn squall when the sales manager for Audi cars in Finland Esko Kiesi, a gentleman known for his colourful comments, revealed his opinions about women in an interview in a special issue of Anna, intended for media professionals.
Both CEO Pekka Lahti from VV-Auto and editor-in-chief Emma Koivula from Anna stressed that the interview is in line with neither Audi's nor Anna's views on the subject.
At VV-Auto, which markets Audi and Volkswagen cars in Finland, and at VV-Auto's parent company Kesko, it is a well-known fact that creating a brand takes a long time, as the Finnish retail group has been nurturing the Pirkka brand for more than 20 years.
A few years ago, Audi managed to overtake Mercedes-Benz as the most sought-after wheels of choice among the premium brands.
United Magazines' title Anna has managed to maintain its reputation as the magazine for modern and educated women with purchasing power, a magazine that even some men read.
If one has to guess which one of the two parties is to be affected most by the furore, it is probably Anna that will suffer more.
Even though women make decisions on many household purchases, it is the thick-skinned men whose opinions are important when it comes to buying a car.
At the same time, a female reader could have a deep emotional relationship with her magazine.
A reader of Anna since 1972 sent an e-mail message, saying that she feels ”cheated”.
Does Koivula believe, she asks, that marketing people become happy when they are given what they are believed to agree with?
She was amazed that the text was intended for media and marketing professionals, who are largely young women. Is it one of the preconditions in the marketing branch that women should have dyed-in-the-wool conservative attitudes?
Undeniably, the special issue of Anna reflects a very conservative set of values.
Kiesi represents a man with a car, while Jukka-Pekka Vuori, the Vice President of Communications and Marketing at Fonecta, shows off his house.
Moreover, two men and two women speak about their barbecue delicacies, while two out of those three who are showing clothes in the special issue are women.
The purpose of the special edition with a print-run of a few thousand copies was to serve as a ”funny inside joke” within a small circle, but it became a piece of news instead. The Internet message boards lit up, and the flame wars raged, with Esko Kiesi being royally torched.
A reader could ask if this is how close the relations between the editorial management of the magazine, the marketing people of the publishing company, and the advertisers have become.
And does Kiesi’s interview really reflect the set of values that all these people have?
When it comes to magazines, close relations between the editorial staff and the marketing people have been common for some time.
Even Anna has begun to publish so-called ”advertorials” or advertisements that give information about a product in the style of an editorial.
Following some pressure from the readers such advertorials have to be clearly marked by adding to them the word ”advertisement”.
”Cooperation between me and our advertisers has always been uncomplicated”, noted Koivula in Journalisti, the periodical for Finnish journalists, earlier this summer.
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 3.9.2009
More on this subject:
 Audi Finland’s sales manager: Women are like cars
Kiesi's comments get the thumbs-down
Those other Audi men
JARMO AALTONEN / Helsingin Sanomat
jarmo.aaltonen@hs.fi
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