Yet Another Difference Between Men & Women

[Skibum]

While standing in the supermarket checkout line I happened to glance at a magazine (yes, I'm one of those cheap bastards that reads the magazines while standing in line) that had a headline about micro bikinis. This piqued my interest enough that I decided to look. It was a fashion mag, "Bizaar"(sp?), I think.

As I thumbed through it I was struck by a difference I have noticed before in magazines intended primarily for women. There appeared to be more advertising than articles, features, pictorals, or any other type of content. There were nearly ten pages of ads before the table of contents, and most of the pagess in the magazine were full page ads that had no page numbers. Even after I found the contents, I was unable to find the article I was looking for due to a lack of page numbers.

I have seen this phenomenon in other magazines for women. With men's magazines that would not be tolerated. I read "Penthouse", "Newsweek", "Popular Science", "American Rifleman", "Sports Illustrated", and other magazines intended for a mostly male audience. None of them have anywhere near the amount of advertising as women's magazines.

Why do you ladies put up with that? Are the ads in fashion magazines important to you? If publishers are expecting their magazine to be primarily advertising, maybe they should pay you to read them, rather than having readers pay for the privlege of reading the ads. It certainly seems unfair to me. Ladies, demand your money's worth from your magazines!


[This message has been edited by skibum (edited 05-11-2000).]

 

[Laurel]

I'm insulted by those shallow, information-free beauty mags, yet at the same time I'm drawn to them. Once in a while I'll pick one up in the check-out line and thumb through it... Those things are 60-70% advertising, and the rest is advertorials that pump the sponsors' newest lipsticks and "fashion" layouts that hawk the sponsors' newest clothes. It's pure sell, sell, sell, but there's something about the flashy shamelessness of it that catches your attention, like a carnival barker.

There's a new zine out called "Real Simple". It's not a beauty zine, but it should be. The whole premise is How To Simplify Your Life, and it's packed with ads for all sorts of crap you can buy to further clutter up your life. What a concept!

 

[Whispersecret]

You're right, skibum. Those magazines are all ad, with little substance. I'm waiting for the day when they print one paragraph of an article on a page and expect you to flip through two pages of ads to get to the next paragraph.

I don't read the fashion magazines. That's probably why you see me in the same old clothes year after year. Say, aren't extra long belts and cowl necks still IN???