Introduction

Georgia – 20 year old Caucasian female
George – 20 year old Caucasian male

Georgia- I am an avid reader of Cosmopolitan magazine. I recently picked up the June issue and began to take a closer look at the advertisements. I think it would be interesting to look further into contemporary advertising and the depiction of men and women within them.

George- Maxim is the man’s magazine! I get every issue…obviously because the articles are great! It would be interesting to look deeper into the advertisements.

Georgia- Why don’t we analyze the advertisements in each magazine of both men and women? We can each analyze all ads and give our point of view along with an academic perspective.

George- Alright, Cosmo first!



Georgia – A L’Oreal ad selling self-tanner with a beautiful white thin woman. This is very stereotypical for the woman to be good-looking, thin, and Caucasian. Her legs were definitely air brushed, along with the rest of her body which is “shining” and “glowing”. I’m pretty sure my body doesn’t radiate light!

George – Maybe it would if you put some tanner on, you could use it! Jokes aside, this woman is hot. I like her pose that shows off her nice legs and her butt sticks out nicely. She makes it look as if women would be more beautiful if they were tanned. That’s why the advertiser chose this idea. Women will want to look beautiful like the woman in the ad, and to be like her, all they need to do is use L’Oreal Sublime Bronze.

Georgia – This ad definitely targets women. Most beauty product ads do. Looking at beautiful women in advertisements all the time could lead to depression or anorexia in order to strive to have a body like models do. I recently checked out the website About-Face. It has some great facts about body image and media. Check it out!

George – I’ve seen that site. It’s all for women in my point of view. I agree with what they’re saying but it the issues don’t really affect me.

Georgia – I’m sure they affect some of the women you know and love.

“A poll conducted by a popular women's magazine found that 75% of women thought they were "too fat" (Glamour,1984). A large scale survey conducted by Garner (1997) found body dissatisfaction to be "increasing at a faster rate than ever before" among both men and women (p. 34). He found that 89% of the 3,452 female respondents wanted to lose weight,” (About-Face).

So much emphasis is put on women to be thin and women are greatly affected.

George – Let’s check out a Maxim ad! …next time