Idea for three covers of Maclean's claimed by advertising agency

[This post has been updated] So we thought the three covers idea of Maclean's magazine last week was a good one -- with excellent art direction and each cover featuring one of the three leading candidates in the federal election. What an original idea, we thought.

And it appears it was original, but not to Maclean's. The idea came from an advertising agency, according to the president of the agency Bensimon Byrne. Maclean's columnist Paul Wells, had written in his blog

"This week’s print edition of Maclean’s is so cool it will make you plotz."

Jack Bensimon wrote (and, to his credit, Wells posted) the following response:

I think Maclean’s has done a terrific job with the three covers this week. But credit really must go to the media director here at Bensimon Byrne, Tatania Tucker. The idea was to create an impactful magazine ad buy for our client Hyundai to launch their Genesis model. She and her team proposed the three cover idea to a number of magazines, including Maclean's. Several took us up on it.

I’ll grant you that you guys have taken full advantage of it. And your art direction is outstanding. But it’s a little misleading to blog about it as purely an editorial concept.

[UPDATE: An item in Masthead says that the idea originated with Cottage Life magazine, who took it to the ad agency, who in turn took it to the other magazines. And that the idea was adapted from the New Yorker and Conde Nast Traveler magazines.]