On that perpetual ad issue:
Lead times between the day a particular article is submitted and the day it becomes part of a layout on paper can be typically anywhere from one month to six months. And that's AFTER it's been assigned, which can involve another month or three to get the piece done & in.
The longest lead time I've personally had was four YEARS, there was no way I knew what'd be running ad wise that far away.
Just proofed a piece for one magazine that's now two years old, have another one that'll be 18 months old by the time it hits the newsstand.
No writer knows what ad content's going to be that far ahead, and writers have no influence over layouts.
Editors usually don't know what'll be running next to ads when an assignment's made. Editors don't do layouts in the mags I write for.
In my case as a freelancer, I have no more idea when I pitch an article to an editor what ads may be in the same magazine with it, or on a facing page, than you do till we both see it in print.
A couple things for consideration:
The largest names in the business have standing accounts. That means you're quite likely to see their ads in just about every issue that they advertise in.
If I pitch a Ruger article & it's green-lit, by the time the piece makes print there's about a 95% chance that there'll be a Ruger ad in that same issue, somewhere.
I don't know that for sure when I pitch the idea, nor do I care if there is or if there isn't. It has exactly no bearing whatever on what I write or how I write it.
Same with other makers.
If a layout person decides "Aha! We have a Ruger (or Kimber, or S&W, or whoever) article slated for Issue XXXX and we have a Ruger ad slated for Issue XXXX, I'm gonna lay 'em out facing each other!", I don't know that, I don't care about that, and it's no grand & inter-related conspiracy as many seem to think.
In other words- yes, it most likely IS coincidence, at least as far as writer involvement goes.
Most of what I write is self-generated, as is the case with most freelancers. I do get an occasional "Hey, y'wanna do a piece for us on the new such & such gun?"
But, when I pitch & when I get an assignment, it's NEVER in the form of "Denis, we plan to run a specific ad from the maker of that gun in 6 months and we want you to do a write-up to match it."
Besides the which, do you think it's necessarily the best use of a maker's money to stick an ad right next to a product evaluation?
The idea of advertising is to inform and to get somebody (the reader) thinking about either that product or that company.
If you've just read an article on a new Winchester, you're already thinking about Winchester, and any Winchester ad that runs on a facing page at the end's not going to draw your attention much after the 2000 words you've just gotten through reading about Winchester, anyway. Is it?
Diminished effect.
Put that ad ten pages farther in, and it'll be a subtle visual reminder that tends to re-inforce the first Winchester (or whoever) mention in your head.
Lump article & ad together, less effect with the ad, they become one product or company blurb in your mind. Separate 'em, and your mind moves on to another subject till you run across the ad. At that point, it becomes TWO blurbs, and two reminders about anything are usually more effective than one.
Cheese whiz! Sometimes a cigar's just a cigar.
Denis