New magazine for the cosmetic surgery generation

As an avid magazine reader, a new title caught my eye: "Brand New You." It was only a matter of time before a magazine was devoted to cosmetic surgery, and this is it. The adverts are unlike those you see in mainstream women's titles: they're for products offered by dermatologists, fillers and private hospital groups offering plastic surgery. The latter is not unusual except that their ads in this magazine are big and blatant, whereas in the other magazines they're much smaller and tucked away at the back.

So what did I think of Brand New You? Well, the cover of a launch issue is usually crammed with the most eye catching headlines the team can think up: those that will persuade people to part with their cash. So on the cover we're offered 148 anti-ageing secrets, a complete enhancement guide to sexy breasts and how to look and feel 10 years younger, plus 107 cosmetics you can't live without.

But inside, these tempting morsels are still only appetizers and don't deliver a main course.

Maybe I'm biased, being a former journalist, but it gets my hackles up when a magazine offers you various experts and then you find the experts have huge adverts. So, what we get here are lots of mentions of the Hurlingham Clinic, for example, in the articles, and lo and behold, a huge advert for the clinic. Angela Kavouni is described as the magazine's body expert on the panel, but she gets countless mentions in articles. When the advertisers write the magazine, it loses credibility, and credibility is essential when you're talking about potentially deathly surgery that costs thousands of pounds.

The other thing that bugged me is that the various treatments which are reviewed are nearly always in the Bath / Bristol area. Not surprising, given that the magazine is published in Bristol, but irritating nonetheless. I could imagine the staff of Brand New You gleefully rushing off to the local beauty salons for some freebies in exchange for a positive write-up.

The case studies of people who have had various procedures are all positive. I wonder if the magazine will touch on the darker side of cosmetic surgery: the procedures that go wrong and have to be repeated. Even "Extreme Makeover UK" had a couple of cases where the operations didn't go the way they should.