Top 10 Controversial Magazine Covers

OK! Magazine allegedly paid over $500,000 for the last photographs of Michael Jackson taken while he was still alive. And while pop culture magazines across the planet were printing memorial editions, OK! decided shock-factor was the best angle from which to cover the story. The King of Pop is shown on a stretcher, in a head brace, with his eyes closed. A man who had lived his entire life under an unprecedented media spotlight, MJ couldn’t get away from the front pages, even during his last moments.

In ‘99, Britney had just stepped foot on the road to superstardom, and she was perfecting her girl-next-door image. Employing the same tactics as she had for her “…Baby, One More Time” music video, Spears appears on this Rolling Stone cover as a mixture of sweet and sexy, innocent and inviting. Clutching a Teletubby and gossiping on the phone, she’s uncomfortably young. Wearing an open shirt, black bra, and pajama shorts, she’s undeniably attractive. It’s PR perfection!

An issue that deals with death in a typically National Lampoon comedic way, this vibrant, violent cover caused quite the stir upon its release. If you didn’t buy the magazine… Don’t worry! No dogs died! In the days before Photoshop, however, this image means that at some time, somewhere, somebody did hold a gun to the poor pooch’s head in the name of light entertainment! It’s eye-catching, even if it is morally questionable! But ironically and unfortunately, a few years after its release, someone did find the dog model at his home and killed him.

Were a magazine to feature on its front cover an image of a mother breastfeeding her newborn child, that might raise a few mutterings here and there… But substitute the newborn child for a walking, probably talking, three-year-old boy, and you get colossal controversy. The mother in question is Jamie Lynne Grumet, a part-time model who, with the help of her son, achieved worldwide fame. The main problem here isn’t the boob, but the mouth around it… The poor kid hasn’t even started school yet…

In the run-up to an historic U.S. presidential election, it’d take quite a lot for one politically fuelled magazine to stand out from another – but this one certainly managed it! Democrat Barack Obama is caricatured alongside his wife Michelle, dressed stereotypically terrorist, while the stars and stripes burn in the fire. A satirical prophesy; it’s a swipe at many ridiculous and offensive rumors that dogged Obama during his campaign. Editor David Remnick had faith that his readers would get the joke, but many people didn’t see the funny side!

As we move into the top half of the table, we encounter a high-end cultural reference. This image of Muhammad Ali was created with ‘The Martyrdom of St. Sebastian’ in mind, a Medieval idea most famously realized in the painting by Andrea Mantegna. Ali had just refused to join the U.S. Military because of his religious beliefs, and was stripped of his Heavyweight title as a result. The Vietnam War had a nation in hysteria, but Esquire magazine showed they could still think straight.

Two months after two pressure cooker bombs exploded close to the finishing line of the Boston marathon, killing three people, Rolling Stone fell under heavy criticism for supposedly glorifying terrorism in this August issue. A stylish shot, it shows the accused, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, with rustled hair and light stubble – almost looking like a rock star. The image and accompanying biography earned Rolling Stone a reported 145% sales increase compared to August 2012, though, proving that where there’s dispute, there’s also dollars!

An NFL record breaker, O.J. Simpson was at one time a national treasure. In 1994 he was accused of murdering his wife, Nicole, and his legend became ‘An American Tragedy.’ That’s the headline that Time Magazine led with, in any case, but the accompanying image became controversial for more than just its subject. Many publications, understandably, had gone with the sports star’s mug shot, but Time allegedly felt it necessary to darken Simpson’s skin-tone to make him seem more menacing.

A photograph for the front cover of a magazine, it has since become an iconic image of war in general. Taken by Paul Schutzer, this cover of Life Magazine shows a VietCong prisoner of the American forces in Vietnam. This was a leading image as public opinion of the war began to change. It’s the brutal idea that the ‘good guys’ are capable of horrible things; and it’s a portrait of the ugly side of war.

Before we turn the page on our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions:
- Ellen DeGeneres “Time Magazine” (April, 1997)
- Is God Dead? “Time Magazine” (April, 1966)
- The Dixie Chicks “Entertainment Weekly” (May, 2003)
- Azealia Banks “Dazed and Confused” (September, 2012)

A cover that Time Magazine has consistently been forced to defend; in January 1939, they took the questionable step of awarding Adolf Hitler their ‘man of the year’ accolade. Accompanying the issue was a grotesque drawing of the Nazi leader playing a ‘Hymn of Hate’ whilst victims of the regime hang from a Catherine Wheel, and the Nazi hierarchy watch on. Drawn by Baron Rudolph Charles von Ripper, a Catholic who fled Germany, it’s Hitler as conductor of atrocities, as an influential figure, and as a highly dubious man of the year!

Do you agree with our list? Which notorious magazine cover did we miss? For more controversial Top 10s published daily, be sure to subscribe to WatchMojo.com.