VivirLatino

Latino men to get an eyefull

15:24 H | Topics: Lifestyle - Magazines

Following in the steps of Maxim and FHM, a new wave of magazines aimed at the red-blooded Latino male are hitting newsstands:

On the cover of this fall's Fuego, the quarterly magazine's second issue, Colombian actress Paola Rey also stares enticingly at prospective buyers. She holds her cascading hair back with one hand and tucks the other ever so slightly in the folds of her saffron strapless swimsuit.

Only creative angles and dainty pieces of clothing separate these photos and the more explicit ones inside from the photos in these magazines' X-rated counterparts. But this appears to be why King, aimed at African American men, and Fuego, aimed at Hispanic men, have been steadily building followers among young minority males who see them as alternatives to "lad" magazines such as Maxim, Stuff and FHM that feature mostly Caucasian women.

I am actually surprised that only now are marketers tapping into this demand. Perhaps this could be attributed to a lack of hard data about "affluent" Latino and Black males (or to the closed minds of marketers who believe that there are no "affluent" Latinos or Blacks), but it seems like common sense to me that Latino guys and black guys will often (not always) prefer to see Latina and African-American women on the cover of "male" magazines than, say, Gwen Stefani.

Jesús Triviño, 25, the editor of Fuego, another Harris title, says there's real potential for growth. "There is nothing else out there for the college-educated, second-generation Latino who is making moves in the professional world."

Of course there will be some overlap in tastes, but I actually can hear in my mind the scolding voices of women saying "He likes white girls. Look at the magazine he buys." Now there's a remedy for that. At least in the print realm, the market has been served.

Sometimes the impression is that all these magazines are all raunchy and ghetto," Triviño says, "but they are well-written with good information."

"It's a tasteful magazine that can be placed on the newsstand without censorship," Page says of King. "It's still a magazine a man can take home and not get hassled by his wife or girlfriend."

Via / The Philadelphia Inquirer

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