Men’s magazines features only those topics in which their subscribers are interested in, such as alcoholic beverages, hunting and fishing, shoes, science and technology, men spray, gym, and of course dating. Some magazines, such as Playboy, feature the interviews of most famous and rich stories written by renowned writers. The mainstay of such magazines, however, isn’t the news, advice, humor, or fiction, but the photographs of beautiful young women wearing little or no clothing.
It makes sense, then, that an advertisement for a men’s magazine, whether foreign or domestic, would appeal to such periodicals’ strongest selling point.Bordo talked about how advertisments use sex as a weapon to attract the opposite gender. Speacially in the advertisments for men, ad makers knows that using young, hot looking ladies will attract men to buy their products. Nothing is better than using sex as a weapon to attract the male gender, and marketers for the European men’s magazine Che are well aware. The Che advertisement in Commuter World magazine uses a metaphor to equate the product to a “better” dream world, shows a promiscuous young woman approaching a trolley station to sell a men’s magazine.
The message which has been printed on the bottom right corner right next to the symbol of Che, indicates the nubile young women. The message tries to physically intimate male subscribers. To attract more male audience, the magazine Che uses the massage which reads as following: “Let us keep on dreaming of a better world. ” This message simply means that physical intimate and sex is fun and they are saying that how males adore women only in dream, the magazine provides that. The model seems to represent the sort of fantasy girl that the magazine is apt to feature on a routine basis.
By purchasing or subscribing to this magazine, customers gain admittance to the “better world” of fun-loving, available dream girls. In the book “Unbearable Weight” by Susan Bordo, Bordo also included several images which demonstarates the same situation. Figure 41 is an advertisment of Evian natural water. In that advertisemant, ad-makers showed some well maintained female bodies and muscular male bodie and thae massege reads: “If you could choose your own body, which would you choose? ” This message had been typed to attract both, male and female consumers (Book).In the image, only back side of the young women is showed just to attract the male readers to the body instead of face.
She wears a simple, green top that exposes her midriff, a charm bracelet, and a white mini-skirt. A small, simple, black purse is slung over her right shoulder. She is the largest object in the picture, and she is the closest to the image’s center, her positioning within the picture, like her size, emphasizing her over everything else that is depicted in the advertisement. Next to the figure of the young woman herself, the most outstanding prop in the picture is her skirt.It is short enough to reveal the lower portions of her buttocks, which are bare, suggesting that she either wears a thong or no underwear at all.
The exposure of these parts of her anatomy draws the eye, as does the apparent fringe that adorns the bottom of her skirt, some of the tassels of which are missing, revealing the parts of her buttocks that show. There is something else odd about the fringe: the tassels, which are short, rectangular strips, bear printed text that is too small to read. However, on the seat of her skirt, in red cursive lettering, below which is an arrowhead, pointing downward, is the message, “My number.This message makes it clear to the advertisement’s viewer that the text printed on the tassels identifies her telephone number. Her skirt is itself an advertisement of the sort that includes, along its bottom edge, a series of tags that are printed with a telephone number to which those who are interested in the product or the service that the advertisement promotes may respond.
Essentially, the model is saying, to all interested parties, “Call me. ” It is based upon a play on words, alluding to the common phrase, “I have your number. The song “Call Me Maybe” by Carly Rae Jepsen has also been famous song. For the week of February 11, 2012, "Call Me Maybe" reached number one in its seventeenth week on the Canadian Hot 100. And also the song hit 1st position in US Billboard Hot (Wikipedia)! Here is the lyrics of that song: “Hey, I just met you and this is crazy, but here’s my number, so call me maybe! ” The song was targeted on the young generation.
In the young generation, it is trend to get opposite sex’s numbers. Who has more numbers, that person is considered as ‘coolest’ person and everyone wants to be that person’s friend.From a Freudian point of view, the train is also a phallic symbol, which suggests, even more clearly, the sexual nature of the destination to which the young woman and her date will travel, if the guy standing at station calls her and arranges to meet her at the station. In the book, Bordo also used the example of femine body used in the ad. Figure 43 which is also the advertisment of Evian natural water, is the example. In the advertisment, one hot looking young lady is standing in the swimsuit between two muscular men.
That lady is posing like so that people can observe her whole body structure.Bordo says: “...
despite the claims of the Evian ad, one cannot have any body that one wants for not every body will do. The very advertisments whose copy speaks of choice and self determination visually legislate the effacement of individual and cultural difference and circumscribe our choices” (Book). After watching such advertisments, people think about that body, and after watching the ad many times, people actually attracts to the images that has shoned in the advertisment, and starts thinking that if they also accept the product, they will also look like the bodies has been showed in the advertisment!There are many other advertisments in today’s time which uses the female bodies to attract the male gender. For example Dos Equis beer’s advertisments. In every single advertisment of Dos Equis beer’s ad, world’s wisest man Jonathan Goldsmith sits between two hot looking girls.
Girls look happy sitting with Goldsmith so the ad can be interpreted like this: One can attract hot women by drinking this beer. This beer will make one smarter and more attractive than one really is! Different magazines different types of advertisements depending on what audience the advertisement and magazine want to focus on.For example: women magazine will print advertisements of households, fashion, healthy and well-fed family. While men magazines will only focus on car, muscular body, food and most important sex. An advertisement for Che men’s magazine, in fact, makes it clear that many men would welcome as “a better world” one in which women are not only readily available sexually but travel to one’s doorstep, in answer to a telephone call.
For most men, the advertisement suggests, life just doesn’t get any better than that!
