MAXIM? WTF!
I am sitting at home this weekend and my wife gets the mail and comes in and asks me why I am subscribing to a “lads” magazine. I say I don’t and she pulls out to back issues of Maxim.
It seems somewhere along the long line of cancelled subscriptions tied back to CGW, then later EGM, that has now segued into Maxim…
Oh yes 44 year old married men with children are definitely the demographic for Maxim and its ads.
pm sent
Isn’t Maxim the magazine that get hollywood and tv starlets to dress really skimpy and look sexy? Do 44 year olds suddenly find that sort of thing disgusting?
I hope I die at 43.
Isn’t Maxim the magazine that get hollywood and tv starlets to dress really skimpy and look sexy? Do 44 year olds suddenly find that sort of thing disgusting?
I hope I die at 43.
Have you seen the internet yet? You’re gonna love it!
Sounds like you pretty much nullified the purpose of… pretty much every print article on the planet. You play to win.
I like to read the articles…
I don’t think I’ve ever looked at an issue of Maxim. I can guess it’s playboy for the 17 and under crowd. Does it have articles on video games? Is that the reason for the substitution?
Don’t blame him blame Al Gore man
I ended up with it too. Just got my copies. Actually, one of them had an interesting article on geek stuff, and one on Lampoon’s Vacation anniversary. But the pics are nasty. They had Jennifer Love Hewitt looking awful. For some reason, Maxim likes to put a ton of makeup on these attractive women, making them look like they’ve been in a fist fight. Then they oil them, spray on a bunch of overtanning, and pose them in very masculine ways.
Rob’s post is an insult to Playboy, though Playboy is guilty of some of this. Maxim is just worse about it. Also, the articles in Playboy ARE actually good, IMO. I subscribe, and I don’t usually find the women in Playboy that attractive (hips too narrow, breasts too…artificial). I flipped through the two Maxim’s I got and found the two articles above to be of interest. That’s it. Luckily, there is a way to unsubcribe and get a refund if you want. I may do that. Not sure yet.
Sorry I don’t really read and or look at Playboy either. Just trying to find some context.
Well, the married ones find it awkward to explain to their spouses & kids when it shows up. Also - and this may come as a shock, so brace yourself - not everyone who subscribed to CGW and EGM was a hetero dude (or gay lady). Plus once you get past that “awkward” stage in your life, you (hopefully) learn to relate to wimmen-folk a bit differently.
I used to have a sub to Maxim, actually…the video game reviews reached the point that they weren’t completely worthless, the jokes were occasionally funny…some of the articles were decent. Rarely was the highlight the pictures, though.
That said…they’ve done a few good shoots.
I had free subs to all those lad magazines, and let them expire. They just piled up. I don’t poop that much!
Laughing Stusser
I am all for pretty ladies. But college humor, dumb writing, and overly processed images with heavy usage of Photoshop? Not all that interesting to me. Plus the fun of trying to explain all this to my wife.
So I have Maxim to look forward to in my mailbox soon? Um… Great!
It’s possible that you ended up with Maxim due to some stupid referral program, but this sounds more like the evil, evil company (Synapse Group Inc, subsidiary of Time Warner) that I used to work for as a call center drone (basically answering the phone to angry people wanting to cancel their subscriptions - it was a horrible college job and I managed to make the company as little money as possible).
Basically, if you make certain purchases online, or get “free magazine” offers through bank, etc, there are auto-checked “free magazine” subscriptions that get added on, and once the free trial runs out it turns into a full subscription unless you cancel it in time. Even worse, if you make a purchase at EB or Best Buy or Strawberry’s or any other number of affiliates in mall-related stores, there are similar “free trial” offers on the receipt that the desk clerks are supposed to push on you “It’s free! Why not?” for a commission (“it’s free, so why not?!”). Some of them get even more immoral and will check them FOR you without you ever realizing it. Maxim is of course one of the magazines carried by this service (tons of mainstream mags are, except for the especially ethical ones). In other words, it’s VERY easy to get magazine subscriptions that you don’t want. If you call the publisher you can find out if you’re signed up with them directly or through a third party, and I’d bet a dollar it’s through a third party. You can then call Synapse up and if you push enough you may be able to get a full, rather than prorated refund. They make a lot of money by making the refund prorated instead of full, along with a host of false deals and tricks.
Also, as a rule I refuse to sub to any magazines that are carried by Synapse. I really really hate them.
I arrived home to my first issue of Maxim! Awesome! Incidentally, there’s a note on the cover saying I can get a refund instead. I think I’ll probably take them up on that. Otherwise, I’ll be getting Maxim through September 2011.
I was getting CGW/G4W at work, but so far no Maxim in my corporate mailbox. I’ve actually gotten NOTHING for my CGW or EGM subs. Alas, I still have one friend who’s continued to survive Ziff’s death convulsions, so I can’t yet wish a pox upon them.
So pushing 44 and able to relate to women as respected adults, I’m unable to enjoy a little cheesy “lad mag” material anymore? Thanks for the update, I totally missed that memo.
Denny you might be able to get away with it. Just saying that in my house, with the wife and the kid, MAXIM was an unwelcome surprise. I can look at their content online. I don’t need it in my mailbox :)
I might be the only one, but I agree. My wife would not be amused. She already thinks I’m a bit immature because my job is asssociated with making games, and I like to play them (most of the the time with our 3 daughters). A “mystery” MAXIM subscription would simply prove all of her unfounded theories about me. I’m glad I called the subscription company and converted my EGM to Highlights and my GFW to Rolling Stone.