Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Advertising: For men who lunch

Peter York
Sunday 08 February 2004 01:00 GMT
Comments

It's trotting out in the wet road, miniskirt up to there. It's put the hood up and it's sticking its little head in for a look at the engine. And the hood falls down again, of course, on her head. Laugh, we could've wet ourselves. Old Kevin's in the back there, not taking a blind bit of notice of his girlfriend making a mess of it. He's well away with his magazine.

And there's that Johnny Vaughan on voiceover saying: "Women don't expect any help on a Thursday."

Now is this a quintessential comedy moment or misogyny? Is this magazine a Loaded for the 21st century or Titbits with tits? It's a new weekly men's magazine called Nuts, presumably for men who think owning a pair of testicles is something of an achievement in itself, and certainly richly comic.

They show you, in a rather perfunctory way, what Nuts has to offer. There are girls, there are cars, there's footie and there are sharks looking Jaws-like. The music's that Colonel Bogeyish tune from The Great Escape. It's popular on the football terraces, but with terrible words added.

Two large magazine publishers recently decided there was a market for a popular weekly men's magazine, a world away from the shiny monthly milieux of GQ and Vogue Hommes Plus. Something for men who don't read "men's magazines" and don't have colour-coded wardrobes. Bits and pieces, nothing remotely poofy. Just the opposite, in fact: all Y chromosomes with the X factor taken out. (The other competing magazine is called Zoo Weekly because they've got a lively sense of fun. Zoo Weekly's advertising involves a lot of men running up a hill to a giant magazine featuring Nell McAndrew on the cover - her who "married" Dale Winton. And they've got Brian Blessed doing the voiceover. He was in Z Cars in the Sixties, you know. I think it's a spoof of a famous old commercial for dog meat, but I couldn't swear to it.)

So here's the male equivalent of a celebrity magazine for women, something the guys can flick through - a pacifier, something that will keep them quiet while the girls are getting on with the big stuff. Interesting to see if either's still going in a year.

Peter@sru.co.uk

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in