Florence Pugh covered the June 2020 issue after her successes in films Midsommar and Little Women. Her target audience is mainly dominated by young adult women as she is an open activist and symbol of feminism and also has challenged the multiple gender stereotypes in the modern day film industry.
Elle Magazine is a worldwide fashion, beauty and lifestyle magazine that first issued in 1945 and originates from France. This magazine has a large female audience, as the company allegedly intends to as the title 'Elle' is 'she' or 'her' in French. The age range however varies from 19-49, with 82% of their audience being women.
The first reading of the audience of this magazine cover is that it has a high female target audience for two reasons: Elle Magazine, and Florence Pugh herself. When studying the cover, the print states, "Florence Pugh. A day in the life of a megastar in the making". The positioning of the print (top left) draws your eyes straight to it as the first thing you read as you also see her face on the cover, instantly making the target audience her fans. Pugh's audience is highly dominated by younger females for reasons such as her care-free ideologies on gender stereotypes, as she has been seen wearing a sheer dress, in which she "technically covered them" at Italy's Fashion Week. However, on the cover, Pugh is shown as a significance of natural beauty as she is seen wearing very little makeup, pulling no facial expressions and having very little work done to her hair, which overall makes the target audience, women as traditional ideologies say that this is what attracts to them. Linking this to Young and Rubican's 4C's model, the target audience would most likely come under people who identify as the mainstream audience, as Florence Pugh is a pretty mainstream celebrity and the work she has starred in have been huge, Academy Award nominated films.
In addition, the other print on the cover can stand out towards single people. On the right hand side, the print reads "Reawakening after a crisis. Rebuilding a broken heart. Redefining who you are".
I understand that this media text is trying to reinforce that lifestyle and beauty is an important aspect amongst women, however as the magazine has used a mainstream celebrity like Florence Pugh, it could create a false image for its audience because many people are intrigued by the lives of celebrities and maybe feel like they have to change their lives and copy what celebrities are doing because they are 'praised' for everything they do. The magazine tells the audience what to wear, what to read, and really what the 'perfect' life is, which firstly might not be reality, but also negatively influences its audience.