Wait, what year is it? It's been announced that Mad magazine is coming to the social media platform Snapchat, as part of a partnership between Snap, Snapchat’s parent company, and DC Entertainment, who owns Mad and its intellectual property. As part of a bold, new venture for the 66-year old humor brand, Snap will introduce original content and material pulled from Mad's archives to be hosted on the Snapchat platform. New posts will be uploaded to the app on a daily basis beginning on September 1st, including GIFS, memes, slide shows, and interactive lists.
The Mad/Snap initiative is being spearheaded by the former Mad senior VP and executive editor, John Ficarra, who acts as a creative advisor for DC Entertainement, and Peter Girardi, EVP of Blue Ribbon Content, the digital content studio of the Warner Bros. Television Group.
“We’ll be taking on sports, celebrities, politics, pop culture and anything else in the zeitgeist,” Ficarra said in a statement. “Nothing is off the table because nothing has ever been off the table with Mad.” The deal with Snap “enables us to deploy timely and topical content in real-time and in tandem with breaking news cycles,” Girardi added. Aimed at Gen Z milennials, the Mad magazine app will arrive on the platform as a part of their Publisher Story content. This means that ads can (and will) run while viewing the content.
“We can’t wait to see the classic work of iconic artists like Al Jaffee and Sergio Aragones and beloved franchises like Spy vs Spy re-imagined for Snapchat,” Sean Mills, head of original content for Snap, said in a statement.
Wow! It's been a hot minute since I thought about Mad magazine. I used to buy every issue at our local Genovese Drug Store, alongside issues of Cracked. Whenever I would get my paws on a new issue, my first order of business was to find the latest Spy vs. Spy comic. I also loved the Mad fold-in covers, though I rarely lined the pages up, out of a fear of creasing the back of the magazine. I collected the publication for years, and have to admit that I'm curious as to Mad's relevance in this day and age. I don't have Snapchat, though perhaps now I'll give it a whirl for the Mad content. What's the worst that could happen, right? After all, my downloading the app will make our own Jimmy O quite happy, as he's been asking me to get it since the start of last year's Comic-Con International San Diego.
Will you be chekcing out Mad on Snapchat? Let us know in the comments section below.
