Both magazine covers relate to one topic, fitness. One is mainly targeted at women and the other at men.
‘Oxygen’ the women’s fitness magazine clearly appeals to its intended audience who are women. However the audience demographics are of a variety, as it appeals to A,B,C1,C2 and D. This is because today, everyone’s out to look good and maintain a healthy body. Therefore this magazine would appeal to a wide range of women regardless their occupation. The main audience types this magazine relates to are Free spirits and Aspirers, as both types like to keep up with trends and show concern regarding their appearance. On the other hand, the use of a centralized image, of a lady in a medium long shot with an ideal figure also connotes that the magazine is for a specific gender. The image compels other women to get their figure as to what is shown on the cover. The posture also helps attract its targeted audience as she gives off a ‘sexy, slim and trim’ look, which then makes the readers want to look like her. Furthermore, the emphasis on the strapline ‘Blast away fat’ grabs women’s attention instantly, as all women tend to worry about their figure. The simplicity of colors that are used come across as very neutral yet allows the magazine to stand out. In addition, there are many techniques used to grab the intended audience’s attention, such as emphasis on certain words and the use of numbers i.e. ‘thighs’ which also helps grab women’s attention, ’20 30 & 40’ etc. The mentioning of age, certainly helps attract women to read the magazine as everyone today makes an extra effort trying to look younger. However brightening certain words such as ‘thighs’ also helps attract women as readers , because they do not only want get rid of fat from their stomach or arms but also lose fat from their thighs, as a result of contemporary clothing trends, such as being able to fit into slim wear and skinny jeans etc. Moving on, the magazine has many selling points such as the use of no adverts, as it shows the magazine is strictly committed to what its purpose is as the cover shows simplicity, the most quick and easy ways to lose weight with only relevant information on the front cover.
‘Men’s workout‘ is typically aimed at men as their target audience. The demographic audience of this magazine are B,C1 and C2. The reason for this is that men aren’t so conscious about their body in comparison to women, therefore have a smaller variety of demographic audiences. The different types of audiences this magazine relates to are the same as ‘Oxygen’, Free spirits and Aspirers. Free spirits are most vulnerable and are easy to attract to such magazines as they’d do anything to stand out and get the girls on their side. However the bold masthead connotes its intended audience, by the use of the word ‘Men’s’ implying it is for a specific gender. The magazine uses a centralized image of a good looking and rather muscular man in a medium long shot, helping attract its audience as every man/boy within the specific audience type wants a nice shaped body like his. On the other hand the use of bright, strong and bold colors helps attract the audience’s eye, yet the colours also gives out a tough and typical manly looking magazine look. The use of background colors such as black and the typical bright blue also helps the magazine come across as a typical boyish magazine. The man’s posture connotes he is a ladies man as a result of his good looks, very dominant, tough and handsome which again is something every man would want to come across as, therefore it will compel other men to read it. The use of a kicker on the bottom left and straplines on the left allows the reader to have more of a clear insight to what they should expect in the magazine unlike ‘Oxygen’. This image has very stereotypically been chosen as a front cover as it almost comes across as, if you read this magazine you will end up looking like the bloke on the front page. This is also a reason for why the image takes up most of the space, and the same applies for ‘Oxygen’.
