Sex sells, there is no doubt, and Maxim is hereby found guilty of temptation in the first degree. Yes, you heard correctly, this court of mine has proven - without a doubt - that Maxim does all necessary to turn men on. Not like that takes much (oops, will the jury please disregard that statement).

If you were to ask an average male to list the first ten words he could think of, chances are Maxim would be on the first listed. Almost everyone has heard of the magazine and the whoopla that has surrounded it throughout the years. Many men even proclaim it to be the next best thing since Playboy.

Maxim is published by Dennis Publishing, Inc. who also enlightens us with Stuff, another male targeted magazine, as if one was not enough. First released in the United Kingdom in 1995, Maxim was brought to America in 1997. Currently it is published in over twenty countries, each varying slightly, but all with the same basic concept: women, more women, a little bit of other male-related topics, and more women. There is also now a radio channel, Maxim Radio, on Sirius Satellite Radio.

The cover of Maxim always features a scantly clad woman, usually celebrities, and big, bold words like SEX, WOMEN, MONEY, ELECTRONICS, and other manly attention-getters (cars, macho movies, beer, etc.). I have always been fascinated with marketing/advertising and I especially like taking a look at the various ads in Maxim. It contains some of the most innovative advertisements I have seen and I wonder should I be applauding them for being so creative or booing them for taking part in such a degrading thing toward women. I even think Maxim should make men ashamed of themselves for continuing to be portrayed as such simple creatures that only think about sex. But I will stop my ranting now and carry on.

It is a good thing the ads are fun because there are a lot in it, though it seems most magazines are that way anymore. Maxim contains the usual array of readers’ complaints/comments, jokes (which are pretty good), an editors’ letter, and such. But some of the magazines’ distinguishing regular things are Late-Night Theories where readers’ can send in drunk thoughts, Beat This Caption in which they show a picture and readers try to come up with the funniest caption, Found Porn where readers’ send in ordinary things that can be mistaken for something dirty, and Campus Cuties where a college girl is featured wearing something skimpy and answering stupid questions.

Other things included in each issue are reviews on television shows, movies, music, games, and sports. Usually there are a few interviews with leading figures and funny little articles. All things, of course, are from a man’s point of view. Sometimes they seem to go overboard – almost like a woman would do if she were making fun of how a man would say things. There is also how-to pieces on cool macho guy things, a trivia expert section (very interesting), and a small travel part. The main focus of Maxim is the numerous pages involving women. They have celebrities and regular women, all doing/wearing/talking about sexually provocative things. All of this can be found toward the center of the magazine, where people tend to flip to first. Toward the end is a variety of fashion, travel, auto, and electronic related things. Again (like it can not be stressed enough) everything is from a simplistic manly view. The tone is generally sarcastically humorous.

Overall, I would say Maxim is interesting. It is one of those things that you do not want to like but find yourself drawn to. And when a new issue is released you do not want to be the only person not knowing what everyone is talking about. I do find a good deal of the content to be funny – just not the stuff aimed toward women. There is also some good, helpful information inside, but usually it is buried beneath other gunk, so sometimes you have to look hard for it.

The target audience for Maxim is the younger male, preferably single. But in reality I think just as many women as men read it. I suppose that is why they put words inside, for the women to actually read. We have a subscription, which I started. Shawn would often pick up an issue at the gas station so when I was ordering some magazines I just added Maxim to the list as it is much cheaper through a subscription.

For the rating I struggled because I think it is a good magazine, but only for those whom can read it (and look at it) objectively. Things like Maxim tend to give teenage boys a bad impression of women, and really an overall wrong idea of what life is really all about. Many young men do not realize that the images of the women are airbrushed, sometimes to the point where the women can barely recognize themselves, and they judge real-life women in comparison to those images. This adds to the already massive self-esteem problems that young women face. Also it leaves a general impression of spending big money on things such as cars, clothing, and various electronic gadgets – all of which are neat and great to have, but they are out-of-reach for most teenage boys.

So I decided to give it a three-star rating and I will recommend it, but I stress that I believe it should be taken lightly. I would also keep this away from young children. It may not be sold with as much discretion as Playboy, but it should be handled as such with the youngsters. The sad thing with Maxim is that they have a good sense of humor and put together interesting (to both sexes) articles, but all that is often overlooked with the half-naked women.

Maxim
www.maximonline.com
212-302-2626

Also see Playboy: The Mansion


Recommended: Yes