Bad Idea is a British general interest magazine based in London, England.
Bad Idea was founded in September 2006 by journalists Jack Roberts[1] and Daniel Stacey, both of whom were students at a magazine production class run by Clay Felker, the founder of New York Magazine, at the University of California.[2]
Bad Idea is known for its feature stories, which are often written in the first person. These have included insider accounts of life as a ‘honeytrapper’ – a private detective sent to ensnare potentially unfaithful husbands; an exposé of Dubai’s sex trade; an investigation into the growth of ‘Web 2.0’ sex dating sites; and a feature following Iraq's Kurds, as they search for DNA evidence of Saddam Hussein's ‘Anfal’ genocide.
In May 2008, Portico Books released Bad Idea – The Anthology, a paperback collection of writing from the magazine's first two years. The magazine was described in a small review of the book published in the Observer as having ‘…hacked itself a niche as a Granta for the MySpace generation’,[3] and the book received 4/5 stars in the Independent on Sunday, where it was said to be '... a great selection of work’.[4]