Allure Magazine 1994

The covers I chose to analyze for 1994 have to deal with truth, lies, and fear. On the April 1994 cover there are headline that reads “ 21 Skin Lies and the Naked Truth” “Vitamins: Magic or Myth?” On the May cover there is “Skin Care: The Only 3 Products You Need” “Old Wives’ Tales: Mom Was Right” and “The Lowdown on Low-Fat Snacks.” Although these titles address different issues from skincare, diet, and supplements they all draw the reader in by claiming to dispel any myths, resolve controversy, and speak the truth. It is interesting that the magazine uses the tactic of telling reader’s that their thoughts and perceptions are most likely misinformed and by reading their magazine they will both uncover the truth and by extension become more beautiful.

The cover interpellates the reader by understanding and addressing some questions and curiosity of many women, both spoken and unspoken. For example, during the early 1990s we began to see low-fat, chemically-filled versions of our favorite foods cropping up all over our supermarkets. Allure capitalizes on this by claiming to give their readers the inside scoop on which ones to buy. On a deeper level, this still promotes the idea that if you are going to be eating, it should be low-fat because full-fat translates into a fat body, and a fat body isn’t a beautiful one. Also, in terms of vitamins, they were also gaining popularity during the early 1990s. Instead of addressing vitamins in terms of their nutritional and well-ness functions of health, they choose “magic or myth” connoting that the actual properties of vitamins may have the ability to magically rid women of some of their physically issues, thus making them more ‘beautiful.’ Humorously, you’ll probably need those vitamins because you’ll be robbed of the natural ones from all of the olestra and aspartame-filled, low-fat snacks you’re munching. Also, “Skin Care: The Only 3 Products You Need” is problematic. First, obviously they draw on the fact that readers ‘need’ certain skincare products, and by not purchasing or being aware of them the readers are not well informed and cannot be beautiful. They also touch upon frugality and being economically savvy by claiming that there are only 3 products women need. However, what they leave out is the purpose of the 3 items. Perhaps they are only 3 products women need to prevent eye wrinkles, or 3 products women need to prep their skin before applying their make up. The magazine draws the women in by claiming to simplify their regimen, however I bet the article gives many more examples of products than the cover claims. The more products they endorse, the more money the make. Finally, for the old-wives tale headline, the magazine hints at the fact that perhaps there is some truth to the wisdom of generations past, and that the newer the idea the better it is. What the cover doesn’t say is that the even though ‘mom was right’ there are now new and improved products that stem from these ideas for you to buy.The ‘fear factor’ tactic is also used in the headlines “Skin Cancer: One Women’s Nightmare” and “The Life and Death of a Diet Doctor.” Unlike the covers of Allure’s earliest issues, the magazine began to draw on women’s deep fears of diseases that wreak havoc on, and may be caused by achieving beauty. The problem is that skin cancer is a life-threatening disease that attacks the body and while a person should be concerned with healing and recovery, the term “woman’s nightmare” alludes to her battle with how it affects her beauty. Moreover, western cultures associate tan skin with beauty, yet tanning is proven to be one of the main causes of skin cancer. The double standard and mixed message of idolizing tanned skin and knowing that achieving this look is hazardous to one’s health further displays the inability and danger of emulating the ideal, yet Allure never addresses this. Finally, we associate diet with healthy, and doctor with knowledgeable, so when we read ‘death,’ ‘diet,’ and ‘doctor’ it is immediately both intriguing and scary that someone who may seem to be an expert on health could die. What the cover does not tell the reader is why and how the diet doctor died. Until we buy the magazine we won’t know. Perhaps it was something related to food, or it could be murder, and it was just a coincidence that he was a diet doctor. Allure understands the curiosity and banks on it.

Lastly, Kate Moss appears on the May cover lounging in a black slip dress with the text “A User’s Guide to Slip Dresses.” It is interesting that now, if Kate Moss or any other recognizable celebrity was on the cover, they would print their name and claim to have exclusive information pertaining to them gathered from an interview. However, as recently as fifteen years ago, the image on the magazine cover is used to sell an item within the magazine (the slip dress) rather than the magazine itself as a result of the celebrity pictured.