The Visuals of the Cosmopolitan Magazine

Magazines use visual techniques to communicate important ideas and information to its audience and create an instant impression. Some of the visual methods that magazines use to appeal to their audiences are symbols, graphics, images, and gestures. They may be a projection of universal values, fantasies, or ideals. A magazine with proper visual techniques is effective at influencing emotion, inspiring reaction, and relaying opinion. Therefore, it is crucial for creators of magazine visuals to use effective strategies in designing the visuals for its magazines for an effective advertisement (Atasoy 399).

We analyze the visual of the magazine above, the Sexy Issue of the Cosmopolitan magazine, and discuss its effectiveness as an advertisement tool.

The ad’s appeal, target audience, and purpose

The primary audience of the Sexy Issue of the Cosmopolitan magazine is females. From the description of some of the topics on the cover page of the magazine, the topics are those that ladies are always interested in. Examples of the topics are; How a girl’s night out turned into tragedy, his burning sex need, and how she got every damn thing she wanted. The topics all appeal to a female audience, although some males may also have an interest in reading the magazine.

The visual on the cover page is a beautiful woman who seems to have an ideal body size and shape, one that many women may desire. It uses the image as a tool to influence women into purchasing the magazine. The words “The Sexy Issue” is in pink, which is a color that is popular among women. It is in such a way that is striking and catches the attention of its target audience quickly. The magazine cover page appeals because it highlights crucial topics such as sex and relationships. It is also effective in using various colors to highlight its topics. Some of the colors on the cover page are pink, blue, white, and black. The strategy ensures that it appeals to people who may have varying tastes in color.

The purpose of the magazine is to inform, educate, and entertain its target audience. It does so by sharing opinions and facts about topics revolving around sex, love, beauty, and relationships.  Since many women find such topics dear to their heart, the magazine authors are deliberate in sharing further insights on the topics. It is clear that the contents of the magazine has several opinion articles as well as discuss common issues by giving examples. For instance, one article in the magazine will be a story about how a girl’s night out turned tragic with a view of informing its readership of information that they may not know already.

Weasel words and phrases

Weasel words are phrases or words that have the aim of creating impressions about meaningful statements, while in actual sense they have ambiguous or vague statements (Launer 353). The Sexy Issue of the Cosmopolitan magazine uses words that capture the imagination of its readers by using weasel words. For instance, it has ”Flat Abs, Tight Butt-in 4 moves.” The statement is vague and ambiguous as it does not contain a specific meaning and may be subject to different interpretations. Another weasel phrase is ”Give yourself a Brazilian…without Bursting into tears.” Although the authors of the magazine may have a feeling that its audience understands the statement, the statement is so vague and ambiguous that it may be open to various interpretations by different people. Another weasel phrase is ”SO MUCH HOT STUFF.” Although many people may interpret hot stuff as being interesting issues, others may have different interpretations depending on their background and experiences.

Propaganda techniques

Propaganda techniques are improper appeals to emotion that seek to sway the opinions of a target audience. The cover page of the above magazine has many such instances. For instance, it highlights a ”20-word answers to all your relationship issues.” It is a propaganda technique. It is because relationships have different issues. No two relationships can be the same. Therefore, what works in one relationship may not work in another relationship. Relationship issues are also complex, and therefore to purport that a 20-word phrase will solve the issues is misleading.

Another propaganda technique that the magazine uses is ”She got every damn thing she wanted.” From human nature perspective, such is not possible because human wants are insatiable (Mandler 657).  When one gets one thing that he or she has always desired, it creates room for other desires. While it is possible to satisfy all human needs, it is virtually impossible to satisfy all human wants.

Another propaganda technique is the ”the 7 best orgasm tricks in the world!” It uses hyperbole to exaggerate such a possibility. No two people are exactly the same. Therefore, what may be the best orgasm tricks for one person may not apply sto another person. It depends on several factors such as preferences, age, and health, among others. A better title of that part of the magazine would have been ”Some 7 orgasm tricks” as it would eliminate the element of generalizations and exaggeration. Again, the phrase may just be to make the readers curious and influence them in buying the magazine.

Works cited

Atasoy, Seda Nur. ”Visual perception management in advertisements.” New Trends and Issues

            Proceedings on Humanities and Social Sciences, 2(1), 2016, pp. 397-409.

Launa, J. ”Weasel words.” QJM, 99(5), 2006, pp. 353-354.

Mandler, Peter. ”The Insatiability of Human Wants: Economics and Aesthetics in Market Society

            (review).” Victorian Studies, 44(4), 2002, pp. 654-662.