Christopher Lasch comments, “advertisement in male magazines serves not so much to advertise products as to promote consumption as a way of life. It educates the masses into an unappeasable appetite not only for goods but for new experiences and personal fulfilment” (1991: 2).
This way, the wide catalogue of goods presented in the magazine –including products such as fashion, accessories, beer, technology, nutritious food, cologne, etc.– can be understood as a way in which the reader is provided with a variety of goods that help him to perform effectively in society by expressing his identity in physical terms. Men are understood as consumers whose maleness can be emphasized by the purchase of certain products. Therefore, the main goal of modern male magazines is to encourage and perpetuate “high spending” (Edwards, 2004: 74). Consequently, this notion of material worth, performs as the perfect complement for the philosophy proposed by the magazine; while men are encouraged to work in private, they are expected to show the results of the time and money invested in their appearance in public. This aspect highlights the importance of the consumption culture in shaping the representations of masculinity portrayed in magazines, where there are new markets for the constant reconstruction of masculinity.

Whilst the materialistic component of male magazines is important, it is notable that male magazines can still promote somewhat of a ‘laddish culture’. Barbara Ehrenreich (1983: 42) argued that early lifestyle magazines such as Playboy, had advocated sexual hedonism, pleasurable consumption and a refusal of domestication – qualities evident in both contemporary men’s magazines now. This combination of sexual content with the promotion of a broader masculine lifestyle focused on youth and the bachelor lifestyle, which therefore can be seen as the precursor and template for modern men’s magazines (Osgerby, 2001:45). The theme of the ‘New Lad’ was established with magazines such as Loaded and FHM, incorporating many of the conventions of top-shelf titles, both in terms of their visual style and content, reworking the spirit of Playboy’s ‘bachelor hedonism’ for a new younger audience (Mc’Nair, 2002:48). Magazine