Study: Men's Mags May Be Bad For Men

by Sarah Mahoney

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/194617/study-mens-mags-may-be-bad-for-men.html#axzz2MULcHyMT

What do Fortune, Wired and Field & Stream have in common? They're all read mostly by men, and contain large numbers of ads that may contribute to "hyper-masculinity," leading to "troubling behavior in young men," according to a new study just published in Sex Roles, an academic journal. 

The researchers, led by Megan Vokey, a Ph.D. candidate from the University of Manitoba, tracked advertising in eight magazines with a primarily male audience, scoring each ad on four components:

 Toughness, violence, dangerousness and callous attitudes toward women and sex. The authors found that these "hyper-masculine depictions" were common in all titles, regardless of age or earnings.

At least one of these four attributes was found in 56% of the total sample, while in some magazines, it was as many as 90%. But titles aimed at younger, less affluent readers were more likely to contain such ads. Game Informer, Playboy and Maxim had the most; Fortune and Golf Digest the least.

Ads with either a sexual or violent tone were less common. "Masculine ideology valuing toughness and danger may be more accepted generally by men than are overt violence and callousness towards women and sex," the authors say. Other studies have linked hyper-masculinity with such problems as "dangerous driving, drug use and violence towards women."  

Increasingly, academic researchers are examining the impact ads can have on public health issues ranging from obesity to anorexia to binge drinking. Sometimes, as in the case of food marketing to children, the result has been stepped-up regulations

Meanwhile, don't expect many men's mags to wade into the debate: Neither Field & Stream or Fortune responded to queries. And in an email, Wired VP and Publisher Howard Mittman told Marketing Daily, "we'd prefer not to comment on something designed to try to get us to comment."

Which Magazines Have The Most Obnoxious Ads?

By Anna North

http://www.buzzfeed.com/annanorth/which-magazines-have-the-most-obnoxious-ads

It should come as no surprise that magazine ads aimed at men sometimes glorify violence, sexism, and/or general boorishness. But researchers decided to study exactly how boorish different magazines' ad pages were, and they found that in some magazines, over 90% of the ads endorsed beating people up, treating women badly, or other so-called "hyper-masculine" activities.

For a study published in the journal Sex Roles, Megan Vokey and her coauthors went through the ads in eight magazines, subjecting each ad to a checklist of questions. These included:

* "Are any weapons present/discussed and/or being used (e.g., fists, guns, bombs?)"

* "Does it appear that having/obtaining heterosexual intercourse is portrayed as an integral part of being a man (e.g., to be a 'stud')?"

* "Does it appear that fast, dangerous driving is fun/exciting?"

Over half the ads they surveyed included at least one of what they called "hyper-masculine beliefs," with the most common being "toughness as emotional self-control" (in 36% of ads) and "danger as exciting" (28%). The eight magazines, ranked in order of highest to lowest percentage of hyper-masculine ads:

Playboy: 95%

Perhaps unsurprisingly, nearly all of the ads in Playboy endorsed some sort of hyper-masculine belief. Fifty-two percent convey a "callous attitude toward women and sex."

Source: michaelvincent.net

Game Informer: 94%

Runner-up Game Informer actually beat out Playboy for the highest number of hyper-masculine beliefs endorsed per ad - each of its ads contained an average of 3.6 macho messages of some kind. It also had the most ads glorifying violence of any magazine studied.

Source: gameinformer.com

Maxim: 84%

The lad mag trails its older brother Playboy, but is still high on the list. Thirty-one percent of its ads promoted a callous attitude toward women.

Source: faystyle.com

Esquire: 67%

Compared to Playboy and Maxim, this men's title is relatively well-behaved.

Source: blog.hartschaffnermarx.com

Wired: 49%

It's not on top, but nearly half of the tech mag's ads contain some sort of macho message.

Source: lifeintheoffice.com

Field & Stream: 49%

Field & Stream ties with Wired, though it has a significantly higher percentage of violent ads (presumably having to do with hunting).

Source: amazingcheaplife.blogspot.com

Golf Digest: 22%

Golf Digest had an extremely low percentage of ads glorifying violence or danger, which makes sense, because it is about golf.

Source: herrmanninvitational.com

Fortune: 20%

The finance and business publication was the least hyper-masculine of all, with zero ads that emphasized violence or callous treatment of women.

Source: forum.belmont.edu

In general, the study authors found that "the vast majority of advertisements targeting young, less educated, and less affluent men depicted hyper-masculine beliefs, whereas only a minority of advertisements targeting older, more educated, and more affluent men did so." They speculate that for younger, less-wealthy men, "behaviours such as acting tough and fighting may be viewed as acceptable, alternative ways of gaining power, respect, and desired resources," and that advertisers know this and exploit it.

 For those unhappy with ads that heavily feature sexism and "fists, guns, bombs," the authors suggest, "perhaps the most effective influence on advertisers would be consumers declining to purchase products advertised in this way."