A new glossy entertainment magazine, IndulgeGR, with the tagline "Hip - Informative - Entertaining," has been released in Grand Rapids. Apparently, the magazine has an extensive budget, as it is printed on glossy paper and has a significant number of distribution boxes all over town. However plentiful the resources are behind the magazine, it lacks in substance. Most of the magazine is filled with a discussion of the "hippest" bars and clubs in downtown, generally reading like a college newspaper (poor writing and grammar errors included) extolling the joys of drinking and barhopping interspersed with the occasional "political" article that reads like a poorly informed rant from someone in an introductory political science course. Most disturbingly, the magazine, both in its own content and the advertisements it runs, extensively objectifies women--reinforcing the sexism of the both the club scene and the larger society while conveying the sense that such attitudes should be considered both normal and acceptable.
IndulgeGR is clearly devoted to promoting a specific lifestyle of consumerism and the magazine's advertising kit reveals that it exists primarily as a way of reaching a coveted marketing group. According to its literature, IndulgeGR's readers are "trend setters, educated, and have high disposable income" and are described as "hip, trendy, mobile, club-wise and always looking for the new HOT thing", and most importantly, are "very local to those [advertisers] who directly target them." While it does claim to feature "bipartisan commentary" and "edgy, urban and provocative commentary," the latter style has long been used as a way of advertising to "hip" consumers.
Moreover, there is no discussion of gentrification in the magazine. Of course, no magazine actively trying to portray Grand Rapids as a "hip" city would discuss gentrification as it relates to recent development projects. However, gentrification is a critical component of the effort to make Grand Rapids into a "hip" or "cool city"--new developments consisting of upscale condominiums and clubs in downtown alter the character of the community, displace residents, and bring increased pressure from the police to "clean up" the area and remove people deemed to be undesirable.
It is not surprising to see all the money being used to produce IndulgeGR, but it is particularly disturbing when there is no alternative paper in Grand Rapids. There are already a number of papers focusing on entertainment--Music Revue, On the Town, and Recoil--and a constant flow of advertisements promoting the fantasy world of consumerism that makes the larger part of IndulgeGR's content.
