CMJ 100 Final Project

What audience is this magazine directed at. How many stories in this edition. How many advertisements. What types of ads are they? Could some be adjenency ads? How along does it take to read the magazine? Talk about the function of the magazine.

The magazine I chose for this particular assignment was an intriguing one to say the least. I chose this magazine not necessarily because of the predominant popularity to its male audience, but rather because it is a classic example of adjacent advertisement that has continued to expand throughout magazines world wide. The magazine of course, is none other than the well know Playboy, which has been a continual success since its creation by the famous Hugh Hefner. While it is well known that Playboy's central theme revolves mostly around the exposure of nude women, the majority of their 184 page magazines generally consist of nothing more than adjacent advertisements and opinionated articles.

In regards to the targeted audience, I believe it's safe to say that the vast majority of Playboy's subscribers are middle-aged males. This particular magazine has a target audience that is specifically intended for males simply because of it's content. When one hears Playboy, it's not uncommon for certain individuals to think of inappropriate or indecent content. However, what speculators who have yet to be exposed to this magazine may not have realized is that the majority of content covers a variety of different categories such as Sports, Interviews with famous actors, and even reviews for upcoming movies. These articles and extras are perfect examples of yet another attempt to draw in the middle-aged male audience to this particular product. For example, this particular 2004 edition contains an interview with Professional Baseball player Derek Jeter, and he is confessing to some form of childhood abuse. This example is one of several other implications that Playboy is targeting this particular audience.

This magazine contains 23 different articles which are written by several different authors. The table of contents even breaks down and separates the articles into subcategories like: fashion, reviews, pictorials, interviews, features, notes, news, and even fictional stories. One interesting characteristic about the magazine is that the pictorials, which are generally considered the climax and/or purpose of the magazine don't appear until page 102. What's even more interesting than that is the mere fact that of those 23 articles, only nine are present before the pictorials start. Those particular articles take up a total of 36 pages, which may have you wondering, "what could possibly be taking up those other 66 pages?" And the answer is simply this: Advertisements.

While they may not all be examples of adjacent advertising, the vast majority of these advertisements are directly related to the content of this magazine. For example, while reading the article on Derek Jeter, it is no coincidence to me that we see advertisements about where to find authentic baseball jersey's on the side of the article. The majority of Playboy's advertisements seem to only continually feed the stereotypical needs of today's middle aged males and they show no signs of backing off. The majority of the initial advertisements are about common necessitates like cigarettes, sports cars, whiskey, men's cologne, beer, motorcycles, and deodorant. Another rather obvious example of adjacent advertising noticed was a cigarette advertisement which immediately alluded to a Zippo lighter advertisement on the next page.

I began Reading the Magazine around 3:00 p.m. and found myself finishing up the final article at 4:36 p.m. There were some distractions of course, but the magazine was not to difficult to finish in one sitting. A lot of the articles were much more intriguing than I ever expected. Some of them contained very insightful and beneficial information. One article detailed methods and ways to conserve more energy Around the house, while another provided some very interesting information about a very popular baseball player. There is no doubt that Playboy is intended for the mature audience, not only for it's pictorial content, but also for some of the articles as well. Some articles, naturally, cover sexually related material like ways to increase sexual performance or personal stories about sexual experiences. However, the majority of articles located in this magazine were surprisingly, insightful and very entertaining pieces of reading material.

Overall, Playboy provides a textbook example of advertisements role in today's society, while also living up to today's standard of entertainment not only through the physical aspect, but the intellectual aspect as well. The Magazine contains several useful bits of information all the while, living up to America's new found standard of being consumed by advertisement and any forms that pertain to it. Playboy may not be on many peoples' Christmas lists for obvious reasons. However, it would be difficult for even jolly old saint nick to resist reading some of these articles.