Rather than live within the easy to understand laddie magazine category, Stuff General Manager Mark MacDonald and Associate Publisher Aric Webb would like the magazine to be know as “a leading product-based pop culture magazine for guys.” Or maybe “a men’s lifestyle magazine.” Or even a “magazine for guys.” Granted the magazine is more about stuff and less about clothing-challenged women, but layering on all this marketing blather-speak gets comical after a while.
So if it’s about products, the website would be all about widgets and gadgets, right? Nope. The current home page carries a picture of Bianca Lawson with the caption “The Girl You’d Love to Love.” Love? Right. I can think of another word that would be far more appropriate and on the tip of every wagging male tongue looking at that picture. A couple pages in there’s a picture of Rachel Bilson in the middle of an orgasm and Juliane Rossi offering up her ass for consumption.
There’s nothing wrong with a magazine like this. Everyone knows men love this stuff even though it makes them look like Neanderthals. Worse though is trying to position it as something it’s not. A more honest description of “Stuff” might be, “Gear that gets you off.”
