Mr. Magazine

One of the major social roles of magazines is being an initiator of change.  From Esquire’s leading role in initiating the ban on gun advertising in the 1960s to this week’s Billboard’s cover, and the spread that follows, calling on Congress to stop gun violence.

The message is clear, but the medium is even clearer.  Nothing like a magazine cover can deliver, in your face, at your newsstands, on your coffee table, and in your mailbox a message as such.  No need to turn anything on, no switches and no batteries.  Judge for yourself.

To quote from the cover of the magazine and its editorial, “An Open Letter To Congress STOP GUN VIOLENCE NOW. As leading artists and executives in the music industry, we are adding our voices to the chorus of Americans demanding change. Turn the page. Get involved… Billboard and the undersigned implore you — the people who are elected to represent us — to close the deadly loopholes that put the lives of so many music fans, and all of us, at risk.”