Lowest Common Denominator: Elle, May--The Green Issue

3: Number of plus signs on the cover

Just 1, surprisingly: Number of eyebrow-raising suggestions in Anne Slowey’s “Fashion Know-It-All” (“…Palm Springs has the cleanest sidewalks I’ve ever seen, why not be a little risqué and…sport perfectly manicured bare feet?”  Because dirt on the sidewalk is the main reason not to go barefoot, apparently.)

$2,660: Price of Louis Vuitton’s “take on the Mexican shopping bag”

2: Number of Girl Scout uniforms donned by writer Susan Cernek (Though we have questions about how a grown woman managed to fit into a skort reportedly intended for an eight-year-old.  Also why anyone thinks teal knee socks are a good thing in a uniform.)

4: Number of cars advertised in this issue

2: Number of advertised cars that are hybrids

1: Number of movie reviews titled with the name of another current film (The Waitress review is titled “In the Land of Women.”)

2: Mentions of a January day in New York where the temperature reached 72 degrees

1: Mention of Erin Brockovich in an article called “The Return of Erin Brockovich” (In fact, it’s a story about Julia Roberts.)

1: Ad for “natural” American Spirit cigarettes

8: Celebrities profiled as environmental activists of some sort (Laurie David, Sheryl Crow, Kerry Washington, Shalom Harlow, Orlando Bloom, Julia Roberts, Amber Valletta, Angela Lindvall)

25: Pages devoted to those eight

21: Total of mostly non-famous honorees in “The Green Awards”

4: Pages devoted to the awards article

Comments

[Caroline]

(Sigh.) Why do magazines get so high on themselves when they do a "green" issue? Like eco-awareness is an annual trend, like stripes, or white. I actually read a magazine recently that had a "green" issue, and the way they showed their at-oneness with nature was by doing all of the photo shoots...outside.

Revolutionary.

[Glossed Over]

The very idea of a vehicle for mass consumerism promoting environmental causes is hypocritical. Notice the green issues never suggest something truly revolutionary like, say, buying less.

[Stunt_Girl]

I don't know how feasible this would be, but how wonderful would it be if Elle had printed that entire issue on recycled paper? Or if every car advert in the magazine had been for hyrbrid cars, and all the other adverts for natural products? Showing some kind of dedication to the cause rather than a half-assed 'yay eco-awareness' would have been far more dramatic.

[heather]

Elle DID print that whole issue on recycled paper.