After a lousy day on the
golf course that was filled with poor chip shots, I came home and decided to find
tips on chipping. After wasting about fifteen minutes on the computer looking
for helpful hints, I remembered that my dad has a subscription to GOLF Magazine. I went into the living
room to grab the magazine and see if it had any instruction on chipping skills.
Sure enough, on the front cover in big green letters was “Wedge It Close:
Instant Keys to Pin-Rattling Chips”. I was intrigued, so I opened the magazine to
find the table of contents to see what page the so called “New Short- Game
System” was on. I had trouble finding this table of contents because the
magazine was littered with advertisements. There were eight pages of
advertisements between the cover page and the table of contents. The advertisements
ranged from golf clubs to Advil and nearly everything in between. After
searching for the table of contents while being distracted by ads, I found out
that the chipping story was on page 109. I could finally learn about what I was
doing wrong on the golf course.
I went on to look for
page 109 but struggled because only half the pages were numbered. The pages
with advertisements did not have numbers on them which made it difficult to
find Page 109. When I found “Wedge It Close: Instant Keys to Pin-Rattling
Chips” I was relieved that my search was over and proceeded to read the
article. The first page of the story was enticing but I could not help but notice
a large image of Nick Watney head to toe in Nike golf apparel. I realized that this
was like a secret form of advertising by Nike. I started to wonder if Nike was
paying both Nick Watney and GOLF Magazine
to have Nick standing there with six visible Nike logos. I finished reading the
story with more knowledge on how to hit a chip shot so I continued to read
other stories in the magazine.
As I was browsing, I noticed
the magazine was filled with advertisements, one on every other page. I counted
67 pages of advertisements out of the 150 pages there was in the magazine. This
calculates to 1 page of ads for every 2.2 pages of golf stories and tips. After
exploring this subject, I still believe that GOLF Magazine is trying to entertain its
readers but the company is definitely concerned with maintaining advertisers to
maximize profits. As Andy Warhol once said “Making money is art and working is art and good business is
the best art”.
Works
Cited
"Andy Warhol Quotes." Andy
Warhol Quotes. N.p., n.d. Web.
22 Sept. 2013.
DeNunzio, David. "The New Way to Hit Your
Wedges." Editorial. Golf Magazine June-July 2013: 109-15. Print.
Thanks Denis, this is a simple, but surprisingly engaging post. There are a couple interesting points here that you make, and some that you don't make. First, I agree. I always find it frustrating when I can't find the table of contents, because magazines open with so many ads. Second, I find it frustrating when I can't find the page I am looking for because not all the pages are numbered. In both instances, I have to - perhaps conveniently - sift through pages and pages of ads before I find the content I am looking for. I wonder if this is a coincidence.
ReplyDeleteMagazines are notorious for being littered with ads. I am waiting for one of your peers to write that he/she enjoys magazines simply because of the ads. I know there are people out there that look solely at the ads. Ironically, Golf Magazine requires a paid subscription, as do most magazines. Why must there be so many ads?
Anyway, your post is well written and interesting. I like that you stuck with just one edition of the magazine and explained it thoroughly. This approach worked for you.