"I love magazines" campaign cute but hardly groundbreaking

A couple of months ago ACP magazines launched a new campaign with the tagline "I love magazines". Managing directo Phil Scott commented: “We are extremely proud of the creative passion that has gone into this ground-breaking campaign."

I love LOVE, and I think the campaign is happy and positive, which inself is proven to attract customers, but groundbreaking...? When I talk about Love branding, lots of people say "Ah, yeah I saw that campaign that speaks about how we love"... Honda, jeans, NY, lamb, Priceline, logistics....etc

But a heart in a print ad will not give you love, just as a fancy romantic dinner won´t get you married. Saying "I love you" or even worse "You will love me" is not the way to reach people´s heart, whethere they are dates or customers.

True love in both romance and business comes from small gestures, micro signals of love: driving someone to dance class or serving tea in the morning, giving a hug when your partner feels down and going that extra mile - without shouting about it - is love and leads to love. If a brand simply brags about being love, that will not give more love. That will make it look narcissistic.

Talking about love in an ad is not groundbreaking. Some of the brands that have done it: McDonalds, UPS, Priceline, Honda, Gloria Jeans, Uncle Toby´s, Mecca, Tim Tams, IKEA, Toohey, Cole´s, Rubi shoes...

Magazines get love for being a great companion when relaxing, having time off, trying to keep track on trends to be able to fit in... I don´t love them because someone else loves them, especially not the CEO of a media agency who earns his dollars from mags... Do you?