Men magazine readers shun male models in advertising

Men are turned off by male models in magazine advertising, according to new research by EMAP Magazines.

The most effective advertising for men in magazines are campaigns that are consistent, with witty, mentally challenging themes, such as Boddingtons, Silk Cut, Michelob and Smirnoff.

Ads that carry lots of information and push a sales message hard also turn off male readers. Interactive ads and scent strips are particularly popular with respondents.

EMAP’s 100,000 research project, conducted by Milward Brown, interviewed 1,500 men on their media consumption habits and attitudes to advertising.

They found men’s media consumption fits a rigid pattern with regular time-slots allocated for news- papers, TV and radio. Magazines emerge as a more peripheral medium for men, but also the medium that has their highest undivided attention.

TV is judged to be varying in quality, radio is used for relaxation and magazines are used to provide information. Only one per cent of respondents say magazines are like a friend to them – a description used by most women magazine readers.

EMAP Metro, which publishes a number of male-targeted magazines, such as Q and FHM, is taking the research out to agencies and advertisers in an effort to persuade them that magazines need to be used as part of multimedia campaigns.