MEDIA: STRATEGY OF THE WEEK - MAXIM. Maxim's new ad campaign may be a tiny bit too subtle to work. Glen Mutel reports.

You probably don't know this, but Maxim is a little more mature than its rival men's magazines.

The reason you probably don't know this is because Maxim's front covers carry the same amount of naked, female, celebrity flesh per square inch as the others.

To change this would be commercial suicide, so Dennis Publishing decided it would convey Maxim's subtle points of difference by turning to above-the-line advertising.

And with a relatively small budget, it has had to be pretty canny about it. Fortunately, up stepped Naked Communications, which Dennis enlisted primarily as a brand strategist and subsequently as media planner.

After consulting Naked, Dennis decided not to fritter away its pounds 3 million budget on FHM-style TV commercials, but instead to use an eclectic mix of media.

Its new set of ads feature images of hungover young men who have wound up in embarrassing situations after a night's hard drinking. Rather than condoning this behaviour the ads ask consumers if they are 'Ashamed?', before urging them to 'Grow up ... a bit.'

These ads will appear as Underground, rail, fly, washroom and bar posters, radio spots, virals and ambient campaigns in big cities such as London, Birmingham and Manchester. Media buying is through Manning Gottlieb OMD.