| Product: |
Closer Magazine |
| Date: |
20/07/08 (106 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: The TV listings, not as expensive as other rubbish magazines
Disadvantages: Too celebrity orientated, puzzles too easy, Closer writers think we hang off their every word
My daughter sent me a bag of magazines over yesterday to give to my local doctors surgery and last night when I was bored I had a look through a few of the recent issues of a magazine called Closer. I can honestly say I was just as bored after (and during) reading this magazine as it's a load of tripe!
The people who write and edit this magazine are bordering on the obsessive when it comes to celebrities' lives and I was not impressed with the fact that they consider their readers to be of such a low IQ that they are concerned about Victoria Beckhams saggy skin, or the fact that Kerry Katona was said to be taking cocaine while she was pregnant. And as for Jordan, who cares if Peter Andre has threatened her with divorce? Surely that was only a matter of time.
Apart from all the silly celebrity stories, Closer seems to have a nice mix of real life stories as well as TV listings, horoscopes, good diet pages and fashion advice. One story in particular that held my attention in one of the magazines I looked at yesterday was regarding the appalling knife crimes in this country at the moment and Closer had spoken to a family who's lives were ripped apart when their young son was stabbed recently. Their story was told in a heartfelt way with lots of empathy, even if some of the text was a little bit melodramatic. Another one which touched my heartstrings was a young girl who had had four abortions by the age of 16, I felt very sorry for the girl involved but it made me a little angry because I got the sense that Closer were exploiting her to sell more magazines.
This is quite a glossy magazine and I would say that anyone who is interested in the celebrity culture could do worse than spend £1.20 on Closer, some magazines of this type cost upwards of £2 which I think is disgusting. There are not too many adverts in this magazine, I used to read Hello! and the ads in this mag were terrible - huge 2 or sometimes even 4 page spreads promoting the latest perfume or lipstick and I do not like spending my money to pay to look at a mega rich company's adverts.
I was excited to see puzzle pages but they were all so easy that I had exhausted the crosswords and sudoku within 10 minutes, and felt yet again that Closer was insulting my intelligence. The diet pages are quite good I think, but then it all revolves around celebrities yet again and I do not think this really gives a true picture of how hard it is to lose weight. After all, we could all lose masses of weight if we had the money and time to employ personal trainers and nutritionists. Also, these celebrities don't need to lose much weight anyway and I would much rather champion the ordinary woman who has three children and has lost 4 stone than a celebrity who struggles to lose 7lbs to get to her target weight.
The fashion pages seems to mirror what young people are wearing at the moment, although perhaps not what young people can afford. I had to laugh at one section in one of the magazines that compared a designer outfit to one you can find on the high street - even the high street outfit cost over £100 and I think even I could have found a nicer looking outfit for a young woman much cheaper! The section my granddaughter likes is where readers can write in about something they have seen their favourite celebrity wearing and Closer will track down the item for you, she recently bought herself a belt that Fearne Cotton had been wearing and she tells me my daughter also bought a handbag that the irritating Colleen Rooney has been using recently.
Talking of Colleen, she has her own column in Closer and it is the most boring thing in the magazine. All that girl talks about are Jimmy Choo's, Cricket and Wayne Rooney and lets face it, your average Closer reader is not likely to be able to afford two of these things and probably would not go near the third with a bargepole. I'll let you work out which one I mean.
I much prefer a book or a newspaper to a magazine, and I could honestly kill my daughter for wasting money on these magazines at the same time as she is declaring herself 'skint' and complaining about the price of petrol and bread. I think Closer is boring, patronising and terribly teeny-bopper feeling even though I would say the magazine is targeted towards 17 - 30 year olds - I know I am well out of that age range but I still know boring when I see it!
Summary: Don't waste your money on this one.
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