Magazine Advertising

For this assignment we were asked to buy two magazines, one from Ireland (Right side) and one from the USA (Left side). I chose the magazine Cosmopolitan for both countries. Cosmo is a very raunchy magazine that discusses sex, fashion, and celebrities. The first difference I found was the size of the magazine. The Cosmo in Ireland was much smaller and more utilized for traveling, while the US magazine was the standard size. Also, I do not recognize the celebrities or models that are on the cover of the Ireland Cosmo. On the US Cosmo, I automatically recognize pop singer, Pink. Next, The ads in both magazines were very similar consisting of fashion, make up, and perfume ads. In the Ireland Cosmo, they had ads for products that mainly supplied. For example, their Coca-Cola ad displayed a picture of their glass bottles, which is found in a majority of stores and restaurants. Where in the US, we have plastic bottling and larger sizes. The articles in both magazine have very similar topics such as health and body- "Cellulite, you are under arrest" and sex articles- "8 ways to max your pleasure and his". At the end of the magazine, they both have classified advertisements for psychics, diet pills, and numbers to call for phone sex. In my opinion, I think the US Cosmo is more sexual and raunchy.  There are twice as many articles about sex than Ireland's Cosmo does. Ireland's Cosmo is more health/beauty and fashion. However, they are very similar in the aspect that they talk about the female body and ways to improve it. This just saws that no matter what country you are in, they are always trying to show/tell you the way a females body should look. This causes females to become depressed about their body and the way they look. This is an ongoing problem in the teens and young adults all over the world.

I looked online for the Cosmo that is issued in Russia, and although I do not understand that writing, the covers look the same. I recognized one world that I guess is universal- Sex. The publishers of Cosmo do a good job keeping the themes and topics the same all countries. They have similar ads including fashion, sex, and health/beauty. Relating it back to the Cultural Dimensions, The UAI is fairly low for both Ireland and US. This can be seen in the Cosmos because they are accepting the risk of producing this magazine. This magazine can offend some people, or alter the way females see themselves. For example, I have a subscription to Cosmo but my mother hates it. Whenever I get the magazine in the mail, my mother flips the cover over so no one can see what it says. Sometimes it can have very explicit quotes and topics on the cover of the magazine that my mother does not want my father knowing I am reading.  I can see where she is coming from because it is a very open and sexual magazine.