Good Housekeeping: Improve Your Mental And Physical Health (Other (Not Listed) Sample)

Sean Terando
Magazine Analysis
D. Williamson
Final Draft
December 8, 2015
Good Housekeeping
Looking for new ways to improve both your mental and physical health? The Good
Housekeeping magazine gives its viewers a sense of its internal content from its title, pertaining to new ways readers can improve their home life. With the first edition of Good Housekeeping founded in 1885 by Clark W. Bryan, it is intended for twenty to seventy year old females and other groups of creative people craving new ways of enhancing their lives. Published by Hearst, Good Housekeeping focuses on creative new house decoration ideas, women's interests, recipes, and health articles. This popular magazine chooses to use different color schemes, fonts, and page layouts to attract the attention of its audience. Written to give ideas to women for improving their home life through visual and verbal content, Good Housekeeping has become a huge success among its viewers. Good Housekeeping is a helpful aid for its readers who are wanting to take a new approach at improving their family lives, and even their own lives both mentally and physically through education, motivation, and careful product evaluation.
Starting on page 4 of Good Housekeeping’s August 2015 edition is an article titled “Dive
In!” The article, written by Jane Francisco, narrates a past experience of having to face her fears at summer camp(4). Loving to swim although being terrified of heights, Francisco’s level of panic rises as she looks downward from a cliff she must plunge off of if she wants to attempt a “cliff-jump” to fit in with her friends. Although not moving for over an hour straight, Francisco finally takes a leap of faith off of the cliff at the end of the day and comments “facing my fear was freeing and exhilarating, and it made me feel strong”(4). By telling this confidence boosting story, the writer is able to connect with its women audience by inspiring them, reminding them that anything is possible. The purpose of this article is to give the audience the idea that they can accomplish anything if they set their mind to it.
The writer of this article does an amazing job of attracting readers both verbally and
visually. The article displays a picture of the author in the top right corner of the page cropping her face into a hexagonal shape, making her self portrait fit better into the page's layout. The author uses a neon pink color for her title to quickly attract reader's eyes when flipping through the magazine. The heading above the title, “You Can Do Anything” verbally attracts an audience by starting out with this motivational phrase(4). While educating its readers and connecting with them, Good Housekeeping continues to attract it's large audience.
Continuing onto the September 2015 edition of Good Housekeeping, the sub-article “How
to Color Your Way Happy” appears on the front cover. Once flipped to page 57, readers are able to dive head first into the full article. The article page consists of an advertisement of the new “Anti-Stress Coloring Book” designed by Richard Merritt(57). For women ages twenty to seventy years old, stress takes up a huge fraction of daily life, making this advertisement a nice fit for the magazine. Asking for fifteen dollars per coloring book, a “natural stress reliever” is “almost guaranteed”if purchased(57).
Obvious visual applications were applied when designing this article’s ad, such as the
peachy pink full background to emotionally grab the reader's attention. The opened coloring book displays a few examples of finished, colored designs that show off it's true beauty. The article also displays “Real Life” at the top as a heading, categorizing itself as a health article with the main purpose to boost one's mental health(57). Through Good Housekeeping, readers can learn new ways and alternatives to improving their health.
As the month of Halloween rolls in, Good Housekeeping’s October 2015 edition has
everything that one needs to know about carving pumpkins. Starting on page 45 and continuing up to page 47, the article “Pretty Pumpkins” shows different ways to carve a pumpkin, displaying the endless possibilities that can be a result(45). One tip in particular suggested by this article is that cutting the pumpkin from the back rather than the top, preserves the pumpkin’s structure with its stem still intact, making it “live” longer. This article, being vital to the time of the year, attracts it's woman viewers who are searching for fun activities they can share with their families. The purpose of this article is to inspire its readers to go make something creative and enjoy themselves during the fun month.
The article visually appeals to the eyes of the readers as it displays the multiple, endless
designs that can all come from simply from carving a pumpkin. Continuing to the next page with the title “Paint It!”, the reader’s eyes are directed to the beautiful designs of neon, polka dot paint slapped over the pumpkin(46). Standing out from other articles, this one verbally attracts readers as it allows them to “channel your inner artist”(47). Visually and verbally displaying the different ways that families can design a pumpkin attracts an audience who wants to get creative over the seasons. Good Housekeeping’s October 2015 edition displays the numerous ways for women to increase their mental health and have fun with their families during the month of creation.
With the month of Thanksgiving creeping up, comes most women's task of having to
cooking a wide variety of food for the special holiday. In Good Housekeeping’s November 2015 edition, a wide range of recipes are displayed for making the perfect meals, desserts, or even snacks! Opening up to page 2 of this magazine starts the article, “Holidays and Home-Baked Desserts.” The article displays delicious sweet desserts such as salted caramel pears and cranberry frangipane tarts to catch the reader's attention(2).The article uses both visual and verbal methods of attracting readers to the article, making its viewers crave the desire to use the recipes and bake the delicious looking desserts for themselves!
The article visually catches reader's eyes as they come across the beautiful fine China
displayed around the desserts. Once the reader's eye catches the beautiful pottery, it gets automatically redirected to the lovely looking dessert resting next to it. Another visual aspect the article uses to its advantage is the glossy finish that is put on the two desserts. Making the food “glow” adds an enhanced look to the sugar filled sweets, making them appear more appetizing to the viewers. While appealing visually, the article appeals verbally as well, maintaining its high level of reader attention. Under the title, “Holidays and Home-Baked Desserts” appears the subtext “-they go together”(2). Giving off the idea that baking homemade desserts are a vital part of the holidays, the reader's focus on the sub...