An improvement on Lad Mags! (GQ)

Member Name: CokaCola

Product:	GQ
Date:	18/07/09 (22 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fairly Interesting, Intelligent Reading.

Disadvantages: Very expensive fashion, lots of adverts.

I bought GQ this week because I'm looking for a sophisticated mens magazine that I can pick up in the supermarket now and again, with interesting articles on cool houses, mens fashion, cars and the usual manly type articles, but without the sleeze and unintelligence of the various lad mags out on the shelves. I did a google search for mens magazines, and GQ seemed to be the answer. When I saw it in Tesco I bought it, especially because this month's cover feature is Sacha Baron Cohen's Bruno, which I am a very big fan of - I thought the film was great.

The first thing I would say about the magazine is that there are a substancial number of adverts. I am one of these people that quite enjoys looking at adverts for expensive designer watches and clothes and other interesting bits and pieces, so it's not really a disadvantage for me, although I am well aware that some people absoloutely hate adverts in magazines, and whilst unescapable, there are quite a lot of them in GQ (which incidentally stands for Gentlemen's Quarterly, although I believe it is now available on a monthly basis).

The second thing I would say is that the magazine seems to be considerably up market. The fashion section includes the prices of some of the garments in the photographs and I have seen one shirt retailing at £900 +! The cars on display are also very expensive, but that's more understandable I guess, with the Ferrari 430 featured in this month's addition, the one that costs £202,000. There was also an article on "Cabin Style" interior furnishings and it was pretty amazing to see the prices on some of the items, like clocks and chairs.

As far as actual written substance is concerned, I do not think it is substancially bad, but certainly I hope that the articles get a little bit more interesting than the ones in this issue in front of me. I have read a few of them and they're ok, there was an interesting one on life after death, and of course the interview with Bruno. I also laughed at some of the sex tips, previously having no idea what "tea bagging" was for example.

I would buy it again because I like magazines and this is one of the best I have seen. I hope however that this current issue is not the best GQ has to offer because I fear that if it is, I will still be looking for that ultimate mens magazine.

Summary: Not bad, I quite enjoyed this issue, but I guess I'll see what next month's mag is like.