Erik Christianson
Response Paper #5
Writing about Publications
Final Draft
Dr. Jones
05/10/01
Secret Ambitions of “Men’s Fitness”
Lose 20 lbs. of lard! Calorie Slashers: 19 fast tricks! Home workout: No
weights needed! These are phrases that plaster the cover of most of Men’s
Fitness magazines. This magazine is devoted totally towards a select group of
people which consists of primarily men who want to stay fit or at least want to
read about staying fit. The goal of Men’s Fitness is not only to encourage men
to get and stay fit; they also want people to subscribe or re-subscribe, and
they do this by incorporating many unique marketing methods.
The producer and owner of Men’s Fitness is fitness legend Joe Wieder.
Interestingly, he was once a body builder himself. Joe now owns many health
magazines like Muscle and Fitness. His name is plastered over fitness equipment
all over the world. Mr. Wieder is a clever man in deciding to be an
entrepreneur in the health field because of the current popularity of having a
healthy image. This is an especially good time to have a fitness magazine
because our nation is becoming more health conscious, or at least they want to
be. Ironically, “Half of us are overweight or obese, and obesity rates are
rising at more than 5 percent per year. Only 15 percent of us engage in regular
exercise, and more than a third of us get no leisure-time physical activity”
(Griffiths 50). People are living a more sedentary life style, but everybody
wants to be fit, they just don’t all have “time” to work out.
This magazines hooks you into reading it with many stealthy selling tricks.
First of all, the big red letter imperative commands that jump at you and say
“Lose Fat Fast!” and “Gain Muscle!” try to persuade you to do so. They
accomplish this by repetition. When you see it page after page you start
wanting to lose weight and gain muscle which encourages you to buy the next
issue or subscribe to learn how. Every page you turn will show a handsome man
or a beautiful woman, with six packs, big chests and zero percent body fat.
After seeing it on every page you turn, you start wanting to look like that.
You start wishing people looked at you more often in a sexy turned-on way.
Undoubtedly you want to keep on reading so you can be just like the attractive
models you see getting girl’s phone numbers without even asking for it.
Most of the models in this magazine are on some kind of health supplement
like creatine, whey protein powder, anabolic drugs, HMB, ribose and so on. So
don’t expect to look like they do unless you invest some money in supplements,
not just in time and effort. Every other page is an add for another health
supplement. Men’s Fitness and their supplement sponsors work well as a team.
They benefit from each other. Men’s Fitness gets paid well by it’s heath
supplement sponsors. In turn, the readers that want a fast but expensive boost,
often stop by their nearest GNC (General Nutrition Center) store and buy one of
the health supplements they saw in the magazine. “It is estimated that nearly
half of the people you work out with at the gym are on some kind of health
supplement” (Harton 124). As you can see, their advertising works well. All
in all, don’t be fooled into thinking that the models you see in magazines look
like they do just from working out once in awhile. !
The supplements they use give them a somewhat unfair advantage in body
improvement over non-users.
Men’s Fitness is also good at luring people in by showing before and after
pictures and writing about personal success stories. This encourages the
average non-fitness buffs to get off of the couch and start working out. Some
of the most key articles in Men’s Fitness are the personal success stories.
These inspirational articles draw in readers that can relate to the victorious
writer, and they seem to think “If he can do it, I can do it.” To the already
fit person, they remind you of the reasons you work so hard.
In one article, “The Odds-On Favorite,” describes a massive ex-high school
253 lb. football player who changed his life by reading Men’s Fitness himself.
After not making his college football team and with no one to throw his large
body up against, Jimmy decided to make healthy changes. With the help of Men’s
Fitness he started taking in no more than 20 grams of fat a day and started
replacing junk food with protein and fruits and vegetables. He began working
out at his local gym six days a week and started running six miles four times a
week. Less than two years later he was 173 pounds and lighter than he was in
high school. Jimmy also gained four pounds of muscle. Girls started noticing
him more and his dating life changed dramatically. He decided to pursue a
career in kinesiology and become a personal trainer. Jimmy’s mental attitude
also changed “Physical fitness is an attitude, and I’m very grateful that I had
the courage and the motivation to take my life b!
y the horns and make it what it is today” (Reyes 116). Well, isn’t that a cute
little story and all because of “Men’s Fitness.” If this article does not
motivate you to become a Men’s Fitness subscriber, then nothing else will!
However, it can sometimes be somewhat depressing to flip through the
magazine and see images of handsome huge muscle models every other page. It can
lower one’s self esteem faster than being rejected by your high school crush for
your senior prom. True, it can hurt some people’s image of themselves, but that
is not exactly their intention. They want you to believe that you can look like
them. Not many people will probably ever reach that level of fitness, but you
have to start somewhere. Of course they do use marketing ploys to encourage you
to buy that magazine, but that is only necessary if they want to stay in
business. Their intentions are direct and rather wholesome. They want you to
lead a healthy life style.
Overall, Men’s Fitness is great well-rounded fitness magazine with articles
pertaining to workouts, eating right, attracting girls, supplements, tips,
motivational stories and so on. Nevertheless, Men’s Fitness does not promise
that you will become a buff hard body just from reading the magazine or
attempting any kind of mitosis. If you don’t work at it you will not reach your
wishful goals. You will definitely run into obstacles which is the natural part
of the whole process. No pain, no gain, as the saying goes.