Magazine Analysis

Mens Health: Semiotic Analysis

Mens health magazine masthead is simple. The font of the mast head is sharp, bold, confident and traditional, this is a connotation of how this magazines represent men. This magazine represents men as strong traditional alpha males. The colour of the font is a bright red which makes it bold and stand out, this refers to how you will feel if you read this magazine you will stand out from the crowd. Red has connotations of fire, war, strength, power, determination and desire which is everything this magazine represents. The actual mast head 'mens health' is used in a way to suggest that by reading this it doesn't make you vain and self obsessed, it makes you healthier and by reading this and following its articles you will be improving on your health. The use of the mast head also signifies the target audience of this magazine.

The main image of this magazine is a mid shot of a topless, muscular man on the beach. This model was particularly chosen as he represents all the ideologies of the magazine. He acts as a role model to the aspirer audience type as he has the hair, the muscles, the teeth and the looks the audience want. A black and white composition has been chosen to show the sophistication of this model and makes the audience see the success of this man. The choice to have this photograph in black and white is also so that their is no distractions our eyes are drawn to this man. A mid shot has been used to show the models physique and looks, we are being drawn to his body not just his face that we would have been draw to if a close up was used. In the background of this main image their is the waves which show the setting of this model, that he is at the beach, this is also shown from the shorts he is wearing.

The layout of this magazine all fits together to form a beach style theme. We can see this from the Masthead that it says 'Australian Mens Health', and Australia has lots of beaches. The main cover line reads 'Build a Beach Body' the language used in this is 'build' the fact that you can create this body. This is a self improvement style language is a key theme of the magazine, because one of the magazines main ideologies is that appearance is important. The word build is also quite a masculine word as build has connotations of strength and power, which is another one of the magazines ideologies. The main cover line is in black, this fits in well with the main image which is next to it, in black and white.