As usual, a General Motors vehicle appears on the back cover of the Jan. 2009 issue of World of Wheels. What's unusual is that the vehicle, a yellow 2010 Camaro, isn't part of a GM ad. And what's even more unusual is that the image, as well as the text, appear in "rearview" or as a mirror image. The key difference between the front and back covers (aside from the mirror image, of course) is that the Camaro's back end appears on the back cover. "You get a full 360 degree view of the car," says Steve Carey, director sales for the Formula Media Group.

"I've been in this business for over 30 years and I got tired of people saying you can't do anything original anymore, that it's all been done," Carey says. "The idea was to remind people that we can be creative and to have a little fun and to say that yeah, we can do original things."

Carey says GM liked the idea and was happy to give up the space.  "It didn't hurt that the car was one of theirs," he adds. The GM ad was moved into the book.

"Every so often you have to do something really different to attract magazine readers," stated Scott MacDonald, art director at Formula Media Group. "We expect this issue will be kept in readers' hands and on their coffee tables for longer than usual."

World of Wheels celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2008. In March, the magazine, which is published bimonthly and has an audited circulation of 56,131, will expand its editorial coverage to include motorcycles (something it has done in the past).

Formula Media Group is a division of Metroland Media Group Ltd.