Some jokes will come true at some point and from this week on, the club will include a magazine with the beautiful title “Retirees-Bravo“. The pairing of terms has long been a mocking attribution for Germany’s leading Aua-, Ächz- and Knirsch-Fachblatt – die pharmacy magazine. The reality now consists in a unique actual Bravo for seniors as well as other adults as part of the next look around and is mainly, but not exclusively, a PR event on the occasion of the 66th birthday of both magazines this year.
It’s all down to business on five double pages plus a title, with the lettering on the front Bravo even in the original sentence, “with the kind permission of … Heinrich Bauer Verlag KG”. More than ever, the question that arises for the following review of the newspaper is of course whether there is a contradiction in terms of this product, an overdose Oxymoron forte. Or whether the hybrid “Renter-Bravo“does not belong in the category of those creamy animations from ice cream advertising, where coarse grains of salt are wrapped in sticky caramel and crisp, finely tart berries are gently bound in white chocolate – where only apparent opposites are resolved very conclusively and you touch your head afterwards because you can’t believe that no one had thought of it before.
Everything included: photo love story and a double-page spread similar to the starter cut “Virus-VIPS”
Definitely the latter. This little booklet is full of love, the first big portion of it gets in the “(glucose) sweet photo love story” from a single lady named Ingrid, whose very exhausting self-promotion date Dieter doesn’t even give her a sip of his Coke want to give up. The impending hypoglycemia is averted by the pharmacist Dieter, who is waiting at the next table in active readiness, by conjuring up a bag of gummy bears from the inside pocket of his jacket. The next day they meet again, in the pharmacy Dieter notes his telephone number on a copy of the look around and the sentence “Would be happy!” As a package insert. The last picture shows Ingrid and Peter with amorous looks, a clear prognosis: further joint metabolizations cannot be ruled out.
The following double page, similar to a star cut, about the “virus VIPs” of the pandemic is followed by Dr. Summer and becomes a highlight, precisely because the fun stops here for a while. “Sigrun, 53” can no longer look through the jumble of lubricants based on water, silicone and oil, “Georg, 58” turns to the editorial staff with open perplexity regarding his wife: “She thinks I don’t want her more”. What happens here, on and between the lines, is simply very relaxed service journalism for people who still appreciate the inner spring.
From there it is not far to the final interview with Marianne Koch, now an author and formerly a doctor and columnist for the Pharmacies review. Koch has just turned 90 and shines full of courage to live. Even though she has to admit that the 90th is “a stupid birthday. It has a different dimension than the 80”!