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Vice Blog

MELBOURNE - MAGAZINES BASED ON LIES

Back in 2006 we put out an issue based entirely on lies. We called it the Verdad issue and ran a picture of someone jumping a giant Canyon on a push bike as the cover. We wrote stories about things like Muslim gangs selling crack in samosas on Brick Lane in East London, the discovery of a microchip which promised to put an end to theft, plus a group of progressive Rabbis who were giving reformed Jews the opportunity to reattach their long lost foreskins. We also did a ridiculous fashion shoot with people wearing t-shirts as neckerchiefs and scarfs as headbands, which other magazines started picking up on an people actually started wearing so we figure maybe not everyone got the gag.

We bring this up because last week The Melbourne Times (that free magazine which they've been delivering for the last 35 years to the doors of 100,000 homes and which normally makes its way directly from our letterbox directly into the rubbish bin) did their very own version of the Lies issue.

They called theirs the Lies, Fibs and Deceit Edition and ran a picture of a small dog being thrown into a garbage truck on the cover. So, the whole issue is about dumb stuff like how inner city councils have introduced plans to get rid of pets within a 20 km radius of the city, a new Fitzroy development where they plan to build expensive apartments on top of the council flats and the new Lord Mayor's plan to start a brothel in the city with a time limit for climaxing. Anyway, it's pretty weird and if nothing else, demonstrates the fact that if you run a crazy picture on the cover of your magazine, people are more likely to turn that all important first page.