April 22, 2009
New Fantastic Man
Issue 9 of Fantastic Man has arrived, featuring Bret Easton Ellis and a can of coke (keep that can of Coke in your head for a while).
Apart from a continued beauty to the design and the expected carefully tuned sense of wit, the issue features a couple of new commercial directions that suggest things are going very well for the title (and presents a positive picture of the men’s market following the closures of Arena and UK Maxim)
Firstly, it’s following the Monocle route of extending the brand by launching an eau de cologne, above.
And second, it includes a sponsored supplement, cover above, featuring YSL’s womans collection – the first step towards a Fantastic Woman?
If so, it highlights the potential problems of doing so. Fantastic Man has breathed new life into men’s fashion coverage through it’s slightly arch, mannered approach to shoots. This will be harder to achieve with women’s fashion, as the pictures, below, from the supplement show. Nice shots, but without any of the knowingness we’ve come to expect in the man’s edition. (CORRECTION: as several of you have pointed out, the shots are from the YSL’s own campaign, not shot by Fantastic Man. My point about being hard to match the mood of the men’s fashion stands though).
15 Comments
Comment on April 22, 2009 by action man says:
The YSL thing doesn’t make sense to me at all.
It would be much better when they carried on to develop what they have and stick to the original concept… There’s plenty of untapped potential with Fantastic Man, which needs and deserves attention and energy…
Comment on April 22, 2009 by Andrew says:
Very nice. But why should I keep that can of coke in my head?
Comment on April 23, 2009 by Tim says:
The photography in the supplement was not tailored for Fantasic Man. They’re simply photos from the latest YSL campaign.
Comment on April 23, 2009 by Ana says:
FYI: The pictures of the women’s YSL s/s 09 collection (shown above) are this season’s photos for the YSL ad campaign.
Comment on April 23, 2009 by richard says:
its got charlie porter all over it. word of the season.. five charming parisians..
i ask you..
Comment on April 23, 2009 by JK says:
i think the supplement is just an advertorial, not to be a female extension… as pointed out by the others above.
the most inspiring and witty mens magazine today – besides butt, of course.
Comment on April 23, 2009 by Ben says:
magCulture came highly recommended, but how arguably the most high profile fashion campaign of the season was mistaken for a sponsored “advertorial” or a taste for “Fantastic Woman” is astounding, and undermines authoritative commentary in this field.
Comment on April 23, 2009 by jeremy says:
Oh dear, egg on face time here at magCulture.
Apologies and thanks for the corrections.
Comment on April 23, 2009 by Scott says:
BEN = BERK.
Comment on April 23, 2009 by bob says:
Who appointed Ben to the Magazine Police?
Comment on April 23, 2009 by action man says:
It still doesn’t make ANY sense.
Comment on April 23, 2009 by James Kelleher says:
Hi Ben, thanks for dropping by with your own brand of authoritative commentary.
Can you explain why you don’t consider this supplement to be sponsored advertorial? It leads with the “Fantastic Man presents” imprimatur and continues with shots from the YSL campaign, which smells like advertorial to me.
Comment on April 23, 2009 by Manly Man says:
Great. Now I know where to go for all my manly half-shirt and man-skirt fashion needs. Thanks a lot.
Nice design though.
Comment on April 24, 2009 by kvr says:
Well what else would it be other than an advertorial? YSL have frequently managed to have magazines such as Purple or frieze present their campaigns in a way that could be mistaken for editorials, but don’t be so naive as to think magazines do this because they like them so much – even though it’s sometimes hard to tell the difference, as YSL use the same old photographers as all ‘avant-garde’ fashion magazines have for years now, so they do blend in (too) nicely (Vinoodh Matadin graced the cover of Fantastic Man #06). But the issue of the separation of advertising and editorial is a complex one… On a sidenote: YSL started advertising in Fantastic Man as of issue #03, coincidentally featuring YSL creative director Stefano Pilati as title story.
Comment on April 29, 2009 by Mr. McGinnis says:
“manly half-shirt and man-skirt fashion needs”
you obviously haven’t seen the magazine.
