Mai Nguyen was the Production Editor for the Spring 2010 issue of the Ryerson Review of Journalism. Balls to Men’s Health
What a rip off. Men’s Health rehashed seven of its cover lines from a 2007 issue and dropped them onto its current cover, adorned by new boy-toy Taylor Lautner. The cover lines are copied verbatim, even positioned in the exact same locations. The colours of the text are changed here and there, you know, just in case readers cry foul and claim the magazine is unoriginal.
This is downright lowly, but it got me thinking. What does it really matter? Many service-oriented magazines rework the same stories into every other issue. “34 ways to make a good impression.” “Get your best butt.” “Are you pleasuring him enough?” Let’s face it: many pieces get played up over and over again. At least Men’s Health had the balls (no pun intended) to blatantly copy and paste its secondhand cover lines. But the good news? Readers are suckers for that stuff. They’ll continue buying those generic hand-me-downs. And thank goodness for that.
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