When the Sun Shines. Cleo 2.0.


 

And before you know it, we’re simultaneously halfway through the week and on the eve of a public holiday. I don’t know exactly what I’ve done to feel as busy as I have but there it is.

I’ve had a bit of a sit down with a coffee and a good read, my thoughts are collected and here I am, tapping away on my iPad. Let’s see where it all takes us today.
 
 

May I just say how beautiful this autumn has been so far? Granted there have been a fair few grey days filled with downpours but when the sun comes out, life is beautiful. There’s just enough warmth in the mid morning air and the occasional breeze to ruffle the leaves and flowers. It’s one of those simple pleasures to be able to take the time to savour it on a random working day.

 

 

 

More midweek cheer was to be had whilst I was doing the groceries. It’s not every day of the week that you get greeted with a Lindor ball on entering Coles. There’s a new caramel flavoured variety that’s just launched and I will be able to tell you after lunch if it even comes close to my all time favourite peanut butter version.

 

 

In news that has made me feel really ancient, Cleo magazine has just unveiled its relaunch issue. Apparently, all the sex tips and nudity that were its trademarks just aren’t what the young women of today want from a magazine. Instead less sex (but not none at all) but more fashion and lifestyle will be the new direction for what Cleo’s publisher says is a more conservative readership.

 

Perhaps there isn’t some deep psychosocial reason to explain this return to conservatism. It could just be disenchantment with the too much information approach to relationships that reality television, leaked videos and navel gazing celebrity news (closet Daily Mail online fan here) have given us in recent years. On the other hadnd, it could also be a yearning for fluffy, feel good fun that seems to be in short supply in other media. A sort of return to relative innocence in one aspect of life in a world that seems hell bent on pulling everyone at any age the other way.

 

I was curious to see what the new Cleo looked like close up, so I had a quick look whilst waiting at the check out. I didn’t make it last the cover. It looked and read an awful lot like Dolly magazine to me. The love heart graphics around a supermodel wearing a head band decorated with cats ears, the ‘so you’re single’ self help article, the new, pink font of the title…. It’s been at least two decades since I last read Cleo and another since I last read Dolly. Have their respective demographics merged?

 

Have you read the new Cleo? Have I misjudged the cover?

 

 

 

 


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