Magazine Imitates a Catalog and Has a Charmed Life, So Far - A brief look at Lucky magazine. If nothing else, it has this wonderful quote:
Many in the advertising community appreciate the mental effort. "What Lucky does, because of its simplicity, is provide a very different magazine experience," said Avery Baker, vice president of marketing at Tommy Hilfiger. "It makes the fashion experience very turnkey." (emphasis added)
In addition, the following has echoes of a recent article by Joel:
Lucky is also something advertisers have begun to mimic, often making it difficult to tell whether a page is advertising or editorial content. The ads for Lee offer pants for the "pear-shaped," "hour-glass" and "straight," in a variety of colors and styles. The ads imitate the editorial content which was designed to mimic components of advertising.
When I first saw Lucky on a newsstand I assumed it was some sort of gambling lifestyle magazine, which is almost funnier. There have to be a lot of lifestyles out there as yet unexplored by magazines...