History Main / FanserviceCover

* The old UsefulNotes/ZXSpectrum magazine ''Your Sinclair'' got into trouble for doing this in 1988. Well, if the featured game is ''VideoGame/{{Vixen}}'' (it was crap), why not slap a PageThreeStunna with a leopard-print bikini and a whip on the front cover. They followed it sometime later with Creator/DolphLundgren as He-Man just as scantily clad, to which they got near zero complaints. [=WHSmith=] still put both of them on the top shelf because of their covers, though. The magazine writers called people out on this hypocrisy and then stopped printing complaints about the Vixen cover.

When a magazine is known for content unrelated to sex appeal, then the occasional cover with one is not a case of CoversAlwaysLie, but {{Fanservice}}. Most readers know the content will be mostly the same, and it's (usually) more of a thank you to the readers than a ploy for more sales (which is usually MagazineDecay).

* ''Magazine/{{Dragon}}'' usually averted this even when putting women in fantasy outfits on the cover, but one infamous April issue from the mid 00s was done by Creator/PhilFoglio and had [[ComicStrip/WhatsNewWithPhilAndDixie Dixie]] in her [[EvilIsSexy evil phase]] with her back to the cover and an outfit that really didn't cover her lower half. It was actually so fanservicy that that particular issue was sold in brown plastic bags.

* ''VideoGame/BloodySpell'' combines this with AdvertisedExtra by showing the scantily-clad HighPriestess in almost ''all'' marketing materials. In the game itself she appears in two cutscenes and as a boss in the last quarter, but is hardly a prominent character.

* Actually invoked deliberately by Creator/HideoKojima when he marketed the original ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid''. Yoji Shinkawa was contacted to draw magazine covers for game mags promoting the game, and Kojima reportedly asked him to make sure that most, if not all, of the art had at least one sexy woman in it. Shinkawa notoriously dislikes drawing women, and did [[http://www.creativeuncut.com/gallery-02/mgs-misc10.html an artwork made up entirely of the game's sexy women]] to satisfy Kojima, probably as reductio ad absurdium. The art campaign was even nicknamed 'Lover's Rock' by the staff, presumably after the song by The Clash about meaningless sex for the man's pleasure as opposed to genuine romance (which the game was actually about).

* ''ComicBook/GrimmFairyTales'' comics series has a reputation of being HotterAndSexier take on classic fairy tales. But this is based solely on their covers. The actual content is just plain DarkerAndEdgier.
* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' pulls this on the Season 1 DVD menu, with a [[http://horror-music.narod.ru/Buffy1_meny1.jpg seductive and dangerous]] looking Creator/SarahMichelleGellar crawling towards the viewer.

* ''ComicBook/TwoThousandAD'' occasionally uses this. For instance, there was one that depicted a sexual encounter between ComicBook/JudgeDredd and [[FairCop Judge Galen DeMarco]]. In the actual stories, it's just UnresolvedSexualTension and goes no further than her planting a single kiss on him in his office.

* ''[[ComicBook/TheUnbelievableGwenpool Gwenpool]] Strikes Again'' had it in the BeachEpisode [[https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51ntEYtMfvL.jpg issue 3]]. Which for some [[MostCommonSuperpower inflated assets]] even crosses with literal SelfFanservice: when the CoverDrop happens, Gwen tells the cover artist "Gimme a D-cup, Terry!"

* Some of the covers for the ''Manga/BirdyTheMighty'' manga feature Birdy in various states of undress. The original manga's cover featured a [[ShouldersUpNudity waist-up shot]] of Birdy, showing ToplessnessFromTheBack and {{sideboob}} as she's flexing her arm.
* ''Manga/AyakashiTriangle'' often has racy illustrations on title pages, often in otherwise tame chapters. For instance, the cover of chapter 28 has Matsuri holding a guitar [[HandOrObjectUnderwear while fully naked]].
* Some of the covers for ''ComicBook/FrankMillersRoboCop'' tended to feature Lewis, Dr. Love, or a random background character in a state of undress (including a cover of issue 4 featuring a bloodied and clothing-damaged Lewis posed on a street lamp like a stripper).

* Some of the covers for ''ComicBook/FrankMillersRoboCop'' tended to feature Lewis or Dr. Love in a state of undress (including a cover of issue 4 featuring a bloodied and clothing-damaged Lewis posed on a street lamp like a stripper).

* The picture is from the Holiday 2001 issue of "Playstation Magazine" (not to be confused with "Official Playstation Magazine"), which has Keira in ''VideoGame/JakAndDaxterThePrecursorLegacy'' in a [[BareYourMidriff really]] [[CleavageWindow skimpy]] SexySantaDress (this was before a later game revealed that she was fourteen at this time).

* The old UsefulNotes/ZXSpectrum magazine ''Your Sinclair'' got into trouble for [[http://www.ysrnry.co.uk/ys29.htm doing this in 1988]]. Well, if the featured game is ''VideoGame/{{Vixen}}'' (it was crap), why not slap a PageThreeStunna with a leopard-print bikini and a whip on the front cover. They followed it sometime later with Creator/DolphLundgren as He-Man just as scantily clad, to which they got near zero complaints. [=WHSmith=] still put both of them on the top shelf because of their covers, though. The magazine writers called people out on this hypocrisy and then stopped printing complaints about the Vixen cover.