Asked about a Men's Fitness cover photo of tennis star Andy Roddick that didn't particularly appear to be portraying the physique of tennis star Andy Roddick, a company spokesman said that "we wouldn’t comment on any type of production issue" and added: "I don’t see what the big issue is here."
Hey, I've handled some production issues in my time, and I couldn't agree more. I mean, if you need to get next month's issue out now, you do what you have to do. If that means spending seven to nine weeks wrapping your reptilian brain around the niceties of Photoshop in order to put fake arms on a sports celebrity, so be it. I don't see how that could possibly harm the credibility of Men's Fitness, of magazines in general, or of all of journalism. You go, boys.
9 comments:
"LOSE BIG", as wrapped around the photo, seems nicely self-referential here, so much so that, not recognizing Roddick, I thought at first that odd layout of two headlines was what you were going to comment on.
When they moved his head onto the weightlifter's body, they made it too small.
Perhaps if he'd really had those arms, Roddick wouldn't have flamed out in the 1st round of the French Open.
My favorite part of the Times story:
"In an entry posted Tuesday, Mr. Roddick wrote that he was “pretty sure I’m not as fit as the Men’s Fitness cover suggests” and “little did I know I have 22-inch guns,” referring to his biceps."
I love knowing that someone along the process had a discussion about whether to interpret what Roddick meant by "guns."
Boy, do I hate that whole "guns" expression.
Ha, point taken about the sarcasm. I just read a really bad novel and I think it fried my brain, if that's any excuse for dull-witted reading.
I amended the post to include that info. Thanks for the comment on my post, though, and I look forward to reading more of this blog.
Wow, I didn't even recognize him.
The "production issue" is that they'd like to be pofitable enough to keep producing the magazine. Interesting that men's magazines are promoting the same unrealistic body image as women's now.
What gets me about stuff like this (and hi, Bill, haven't run across you in a while; seems like a long time since we used to chat on the CompuServe Tennis forum) is that they wouldn't put Roddick on the cover if they didn't think he was famous enough that we'd all know who he was and have seen him play. Which means we've *seen* him, and we *know* what his body looks like - and therefore know that ain't it.
How dumb do they think people are?
wg
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