The target audience for this magazine are likely middle/upper class men who aspire to be as rich and famous/infamous as Elon Musk himself. they fall into the succeeders/aspirers category of the 4C's model, and they would be drawn to this issue as it includes advice from many successful people such as sir James dyson (inventor of the dyson hoover), theoretical physicist Dr Michio Kaku, and Yuval Noah Harari, Israeli historian and author of 'sapiens'
This magazine has been tailored to this audience through a variety of visual and written codes, such as the use of Elon Musk, who is notable for having become a billionaire at just 27 years old. the positioning of his body within the frame likely signifies how large of an entity he is within the business world, and has likely been strategically placed there in order to attract their audience with ideas of being as big as Elon Musk. In addition to this the specific colour choices used within this image project an air of seriousness and serenity, which is what the audience likely wish to aspire to. The copy placed at the upper right of the image '30+ pages on building a workforce for the future' has been worded that way in order to ensure their audience will read through the magazine itself- it is giving advice on how to advance their career and obtain status and control, which are their core needs in life. They would be drawn to this specific magazine anyway due to its importance.
"Recognised as the world’s leading premier business and luxury title, The CEO Magazine is a source of information, inspiration and motivation for the world’s most successful leaders, executives, investors and entrepreneurs"-quote from the CEO magazines website.
This is a pretentious brand of magazine, so the aspirers would be drawn to it, and its sleek design would appeal to the aspirers', who are all about their appearance. This magazine would be used for information about the worlds leading entrepreneurs and business leaders, and would encourage their audience to try and see these people as role models, given their similar outlooks on life regarding work and business, and the upkeep of the status quo.
This magazine is also pushing an agenda which supports Elon Musk, who is quite the controversial figure within the internet for a variety of reasons, including mocking the usage of singular they/them pronouns and comparing Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau to Adolf Hitler. Given all His controversies in and before 2018, their choice to use him as the main figure in this cover stands as a backing of his choices (including the one where he smoked weed on the joe Rogan podcast lol) and as an endorsement of his political and social ideals.
I understand the reading of the text being someone to aspire to be like in the business world, however I see the text as controversial with Elon Musk being on the cover and I do not want to support him or the magazine even though I have been targeted at.
Upon first impressions of the magazine cover, it is clear that the audience is upcoming, middle-aged entrepreneurs. Referring to the 4c's booklet, I would say that this text would be drawn towards the aspirer and not so much the succeeder as perhaps they would rather not value themselves based of a billionaire whereases the aspirer would like to make that comparison. However, the text could be read differently due to the media's view on Elon Musk. Firstly, the view could be tarnished as he is of course a very controversial figure whether that be from when he fired thousands of twitter employees or when he went on the Joe Rogan podcast and smoked weed, or of course his controversial tweets…