In a promotion that is as business smart as it is surreal, GameStop is offering subscriptions to a variety of female-oriented magazines as a bonus for buying fitness games like Wii Fit.
Nowadays we get free magazine subscriptions to go with everything from pizza deliveries to used game purchases – so why not copies of My Fitness Coach or Jillian Michaels’ Fitness Ultimatum 2008? GameStop, smartly anticipating a rush of fitness game purchases in the wake of an abundance of “I’m going to lose weight” New Year’s Resolutions, is offering a new deal: Spend more than $34 on a select group of fitness-oriented games, and you qualify for a free year-long subscription to a magazine of your choice!
Only thing is, if you’re hoping for a Maxim subscription to go with your copy of Brain Age, you’re in the wrong store. The magazines featured in the deal include Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, Redbook and Good Housekeeping. Yes, this is some serious supermarket checkout line browsing material. The deal’s aimed squarely at the ladies, and GameStop isn’t really making any secret of it. “We know that getting in shape is one of the toughest New Year’s resolutions to stick with, especially for busy moms who often don’t have time to spare for exercise,” Mark Hogan, Senior Vice President of Marketing for GameStop, said. “Today’s moms are looking for ways to incorporate exercise into their lifestyle. Active videogames are a terrific way to reach your fitness goals, and as an added bonus, they can be enjoyed with your whole family.”
Allow me to ignore for a second how completely bizarre it is that the company that has shoved Game Informer subscriptions down the throats of thousands for years is now doing the same with Cosmo and say for a second that this whole thing is totally sexist! Guys also make New Year’s resolutions to get fit, and we’d totally be into a free magazine subscription, say to, I don’t know, Men’s Fitness or Esquire, when we go and decide to buy Wii Fit after embarrassing ourselves earlier in the day at the gym and swearing to never go back again. Where are our bonus magazine subscriptions, huh? It’s not just soccer moms who are trying to get back in shape, okay, GameStop?
