ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the practice of magazine advertising, the cost and effects of readership and circulation rates, as well as the placement of advertisements in magazines. It considers the literature that has examined the content of magazine advertisements and summarizes the results of studies that have investigated portrayals of gender, race and ethnicity in magazine ads. The chapter suggests lines of inquiry about magazine advertising content that would assist media scholars in strengthening the body of literature in this area, help advertising practitioners handle the business aspects of the industry more effectively and add more value to magazine reading among audiences. Critics consistently have raged against the way scantily clad, suggestively portrayed women are displayed to sell every type of product in magazines. The predominance of content analysis as the method used to gather data precluded the application of theoretical frameworks that relate magazine content with psychological, sociological or cultural variables.
