Activity #4 Magazine Advertising

The magazine I compared for this assignment was Cosmopolitan. Fortunately, I was able to purchase the Irish version of the magazine and had the American issue at home to compare it to so there would be no discrepancies to advertising contracts between different publishing companies.

It is obvious just by comparing the covers of the magazine that they contain different articles, but in the true nature of Cosmo, I cannot say that they are all THAT much different. Even if the articles in the Irish version are not the same in THIS issue, I can recall most of the articles in previous issues of the American version that I've read. (After all, how many different things can you truly say about sex, women's health, relationship problems and fashion?) The celebrities on the cover of the Irish version are girls that I don't recognize and the fashion is slightly different (although we'll probably be seeing similar styles in the US in the future) but for the most part, at first glance, the magazines are very similar.

The advertisements inside are almost identical between the two versions of the magazine. There is an Herbal Essence ad that it the same in both. The majority of the advertisements are for skin and haircare products, make-up, perfume and designer clothing lines. Most of these are the same, if not similar between the two, and even in the slightly differing ones, they do not express any different cultural values. I would assume that this is due to similar cultural dimensions between the two nations.

When visiting Ireland, it was very clear that there were less-strict censorship laws regarding sexual advertising. When comparing the magazines' contents, however, I noticed that the American version contained more articles of a sexual nature than the Irish version, where the Irish version had more articles regarding relationships. I feel as though in the US, because sexual censorship is so strong, people are more likely to buy a magazine with more risque content than in Ireland where consumers are constantly surrounded by it. This is also interesting when comparing relationships between couples in the US to couples in Ireland. The divorce rate in American is 50%, while in Ireland it is 27%. These articles may reflect the relationship status of our nations. The Irish issue helps women work on healthy relationships, while the American issue focuses more on short term relationships and sexual gratification.

I did find the Swedish version of the magazine online, but unfortunately for the sake of the assignment, the language barrier prevented me from interpreting the contents inside.