Economist dumbs down its advertising. Waaay down.

(click ads for closer look)
Cloud-Cuckoo-Land?—Apparently tiring of its legacy as an extremely smart news magazine, The Economist has just launched a new print ad campaign that looks/reads like it's aimed at childish doofuses (doofi?) like me. So, this is maybe not a smart marketing move by a publication that's one of the few in the world that continues to show robust growth? The ads are certainly a clean break from what's considered by many to be the best magazine advertising campaign ever (here's 1, 2, 3 recent examples that aren't half as good as executions from the 1990s, which I'm too lazy to find online. images via.) previously in newspaper/magazine self-promo advertising: Spanish newspaper plays a fun game with 9/11; Deutsch—apparently not a bestiality magazine; Penthouse 1980 subscription ad targeted men with triangular-shaped penises; New York Times Select—take a trip down memory lane (a toll road).