Dominant signifier of Vin Diesel, a well-known actor attracts a larger audience and provides impressionable men with a role model to aspire to.
The blue and black colours connote stereotypical values of patriarchy and masculinity.
Reactionary product – more fit bodies are more popular and the dominant signifier is posed in a way which shows his body off.
Vin Diesel seems to be looking down at the reader which gives impressions of superiority and power.
Language contains a lot of vocabulary related to fitness and literally says that the product is “for men”.
Hashtags are used to encourage the spread of the product through social media.
Representation
The school of life present a video detailing the cool man and the warm man. While not an academic theory, it is possible to identify these two representations in Men’s Health.
Vin Diesel on the front cover is a “cool man” based on his “sexy” physical features and stoick expression. He seems as if he will do anything for what he thinks is the right thing to do and not much will faze him when doing so. The warm man can be seen on the last page of the CSP. I think this because he seems like he is giving his all at running the marathon, and will happily admit where he could have done better and will inspire others to do similar good acts.
Facts about Men’s Health
Published by Hearst, founded in 1986 and it is produced monthly
Best selling men’s magazine on U.S newsstands.
Has 35 editions in 59 different countries.
In 2008, the magazine partnered with Google to make back issues available.
For its 20th anniversary issue in November 2008, Men’s Health included an interview and photo shoot with Barack Obama.
Between April 2019 and March 2020, Men’s Health had an average monthly outreach of 1.8 million adults aged 15+ in the UK.
Men’s Health was started as a quarterly magazine by Rodale in 1988 and subscriptions began to be sold.
In 2001 the title was consistently selling 400,000 copies at newsstands and circulation was 1.6 million.