Our mail box was filled with this today:
Two pounds of InStyle magazine. Now, most would probably cheer and not be able to wait to plop on the couch, inhale some chocolate, and delve in.
All I thought was: “Okay, that’s it!”
This is the last time I’m subscribing to a fashion magazine!
Because I knew that most of the weight came from advertising pages, which I flip through and don’t give a second glance to anyway because the models look like no real woman looks and usually those ads are so freaking stylized that the clothes isn’t even shown and you wonder what the ad is for.
Big eyebrows? Contortionists?
What ticked me off when I lugged that magazine up the driveway was the waste of resources to have this magazine printed and delivered a million times around the world.
This issue announced proudly how many pages it had on the front cover: 652. My personal carbon footprint just went to shits today by subscribing to this dang magazine.
I counted 30 pages of ads before the Contents page! Remember when that was on page 3 or 4?
To prove my point about the overload of ads in fashion magazines, I pulled out every single page that had editorial content. Here is the result:
On the left: the editorial pages, but bare in mind that the other side still has an ad on it.
And on the right you have the rest of the magazine, all pages with ads on them on the front and back. Even if you threw out the whole right side, you’d still end up with a magazine full of ads.
I counted the editorial pages: there are 180. Now, I know that magazines are not about the writing — they get published to sell advertising space, that’s where the money is. And I enjoy the editorial content in InStyle, but 500 pages of ads about clothes, shoes, and jewelry the average woman can’t afford or would never wear is ridiculous and just annoying.
My subscription is running out next month, and I wasn’t going to renew it anyway because I don’t have time to rifle through 500 ad pages of emaciated girls. This mama is busy.
Plus, this is what I do now: I borrow magazines from the library. And while Landon is playing there, I grab my favorite magazine, Country Living, and if I find something I want to remember, I take an Instagram picture of that page.
I really liked this idea for easy DIY curtains and took a picture of it…
…and the part of the article explaining how they were made. Just in case you were following me on Instagram (DagmarBleasdale) and were wondering about my random pictures. I use Instagram as a vision board.
Voila, another tree saved, and I have the information backed up on my computer and can pin it to my Pinterest boards.
Tomorrow, I’m calling InStyle to stop with the incessant “Please come back!” mailings that are sure to follow, wasting more precious resources.
What do you think of the overload of ads in fashion magazines?
Kathy Morelli, LPC (@KathyAMorelli) says
August 17, 2012 at 7:48 AMHi! Absolutely! I notices this ad-content imbalance a while ago and I do NOT subscribe to mags…once in a while I buy one and then I am inevitably disappointed in the content anyway. The models are 16 yo, too skinny and the clothes are ridiculous. thanks for this truthful blogpost!
Jeanette says
August 17, 2012 at 4:48 AMYES!! I so absolutely agree with you, I stopped buying those a few years ago. Just like you, I started counting ad pages vs editorial and interesting stuff, and alas, got to the same conclusion. Really not worth it, not in terms of money spent on junk, not in terms of the environment and not in terms of women’s self-asteem everywhere. It’s kinda sad, I do miss a magazine that does it all, but so far, I haven’t been able to find a single one.
Jen @ Lita's World says
August 16, 2012 at 6:25 PMI couldn’t agree more!! I made a pact last year to not renew any magazine and you know what? I don’t regret it!! Most of them I can read at the library or online or on my iPad!! I feel so good about not recycling so much paper every week!! I would often try to give them away to friends to read too, but I still felt bad. Good for you and thanks for showing how much of the magazines actually have editorial content too!!
Dagmar says
August 16, 2012 at 9:59 PMGood for you! We have a magazine exchange at our library and I add magazines to that and take a few. Every little bit helps.
Bex says
August 16, 2012 at 4:52 PMI hardly subscribe to any mags anymore! It’s funny I remember when I was a teen, and fashion mags were actually pretty normal in length. Then, once a year magazines like Vogue put out the mega issue that had all the cool ads. You only got a 652 page magazine ONCE a year. Not monthly. And it was SO exciting to see that huge magazine on the racks! Now it’s just common place to see magazines like that. I guess advertising was different back then.
PragmaticMom says
August 16, 2012 at 4:47 PMI recycle my fashion magazines by bringing them to the office where several more people read them before they go into the recycling bin but now you make me think that this is not enough.
September is the biggest issue for fashion magazines; like Christmas for retailers. I actually like the ads — like a mini-story — and it’s the ads that keep them in business so I don’t mind.
I’ll try to get greener with my magazines. Maybe more lending and loaning is in order.
Dagmar says
August 16, 2012 at 10:02 PMI do the same thing with magazines we get (AllYou, and Don’s magazines like Time) – I leave them at the library so someone else can enjoy them. No more fashion magazines for me anymore, though.