| Product: |
Shape |
| Date: |
13/05/02 (82 review reads) |
| Rating: |
 |
Advantages: in the op itself
Disadvantages: ditto
Shape is not a magazine I would normally chose to buy, but when a copy ends up in my hands, as it invariably does, I usually flick through before chucking it under my bed where all things that need to be banished from sight but still can’t, for some unknown reason, be thrown away, live.
Published monthly by Dennis Publishing, Shape is, as the name would suggest, concerned with all things healthy and fitnessey. They’re a little over the top with their accepting yourself and worshipping life emphasis – all their sections have the L word in the title – love your health, love your body, love your world and so on.
Unlike some other magazines, this one manages to strike a nice balance between health issues (good detail, but only about those affecting 20 – 40 year old women really), fashion (not too many pages, “average” sized models and most importantly wearable clothes), fitness tips ( achievable goals from followable plans) and food advice ( yummy recipes and not too much focus on dieting). They even have a travel section, with self-indulgent holiday ideas as well as the usual spa breaks and hiking trips.
They don’t give freebies all that often, but when they do they’re good ones – clothes, books, extra magazines and so on. The magazine itself often features funky offers, whether they be for half price facials or free product samples. Competitions usually feature holidays either abroad or in this country as prizes – so not just a year’s subscription and a 10 year old goody bag then. Although as all mags it contains a fair num of adverts, the majority of these are contained to the last few pages where they have a classified section, making them easy to skip through (unless you are actually in the market for a boob job or cyber sex partner).
The features are usually well researched and written in a nice readable way. They have quizzes with a twist – instead o
f a list of boring questions about what you’d do if you caught your partner cheating on you, they have lifestyle related tests, such as “will you age faster than your friends?” I’m happy to say that I won’t – the combo of my skin tone, my smoking and drinking habits (never) and the amount of sleep I get, I should be looking 17 for the rest of my life. Which is better than, y’know, looking 70.
They feature readers quite a lot, whether it be for “day in the life of a typical…..” or for their success stories section, where now thin and fit types show off their bloater pics. Why you can’t deny are always fun to look at.
On the negative side, the magazine seems very much geared to losing weight – even if you’re into keeping in shape and being fit and healthy it might not be the mag for you. Also, the make up section seems a little pointless to me – in terms of sports, you’d just sweat it off anyway, and for daytime / evenings, I never see the point in showing people how to cover up the healthy glow they developed as a result of their work out – surely slightly flushed cheeks are more attractive the milky white ones?
I took 2 of my 3 free issues of Shape on holiday with me, but was soon bored: there just isn’t enough detail or depth in any of the articles to keep you engrossed for long enough. Overall, it’s a nice all round magazine but not really my thing. Because they cover so many different areas, they just cannot delve into any one in as much detail as I’d like. Which is a shame, because if they got that right, they might be onto a winner. Final verdict has to be though, if all you want is to get into shape, then getting into Shape is not necessarily the best way to do it.
Shape Magazine - £2.60 / month
For subscription details call 01454 642448
Website : www.shapmag.com
Summary:
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Last comment:
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mavis_riley - 13/05/02 After the amount of junk i've eaten in the last weeks this may well be worth investigating! Good op |
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