Line #51 Main/FanserviceCover


1	[[quoteright:245:[[VideoGame/JakAndDaxterThePrecursorLegacy https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/psm_holiday_cover.jpg]]]]
2	[[caption-width-right:245:[[CoversAlwaysLie And she never dresses like that in the actual games.]]]]
3
4	When a {{magazine\|s}} 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).
5
6	Key points of this trope:
7	# It's for a periodic publication, like {{Magazines}} (so that there are covers without fanservice).
8	# The subject of the publications is largely unrelated to sex.
9	# Most issues do not have covers like this. Most covers are about the magazine's typical subject matter.
10	# It's not to [[CoversAlwaysLie deceive readers]] (usually).
11
12	A SubTrope of SexyPackaging.
13	----
14	!!Examples:
15	[[foldercontrol]]
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17	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
18	* ''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]].
19	* 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.
20	[[/folder]]
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22	[[folder:Comic Books]]
23	* ''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.
24	* 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).
25	* ''[[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!"
26	* ''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.
27	[[/folder]]
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29	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
30	* ''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.
31	[[/folder]]
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33	[[folder:Print Media]]
34	* 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 really skimpy SexySantaDress, complete with a bare midriff and a CleavageWindow (this was before a later game revealed that she was fourteen at this time).
35	* The ''Magazine/SportsIllustrated'' annual swimsuit issue is basically an entire issue like this, as a big service to its fans.
36	** The 50th Anniversary issue featured '''two''' covers - the main one had Nina Agdal, Lily Aldridge and Chrissy Teigen; flip it over and say hello to Creator/KateUpton (for her third cover in a row, technically) as a big service to ''her'' fans.
37	* PSM used to have its own "swimsuit issue" à la ''Sports Illustrated''.
38	* The old Platform, /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.
39	* ''Time'' had an issue on childbirth in 2010. What better to represent an article called "How the first nine months shape the rest of your life" than a totally nude pregnant model covered only by her hands and strategically placed shadows?
40	* ''Newsweek'':
41	** Having an article on health with a gymnast in a tank top and biker shorts posing on the cover.
42	** Another ''Newsweek'' example: they got into a flap with Sarah Palin by putting a photo of her in track shorts on their cover.
43	* Many issues of the ''S(cience) F(iction) X'' magazine have gorgeous women in seductive poses, with the top of their heads conveniently covering the bottom of the F, so it looked like an "E", which changed the acronym's interpretation a lot. The magazine itself has articles on things like sci-fi authors and ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica\|2003}}''.
44	** Readers of SFX have complained about this for years; the bottom of the F tends to get covered a lot. When the American ''Film/Godzilla1998'' movie came out, they put the magazine in a black wrapper and had the subtitle "Bigger is better".
45	* Focus, at least in Italy. You can put a bet on taking any cover in the last five years, and find ''at least'' a topless healthy woman. Full frontal, full back and CG are not rare at all. It's a scientific magazine, so, thrice a year, there is a article about "How to do better sex".
46	* ''Cube'' issue 49 reviewed ''Wrestling/{{WWE}}: Day of Reckoning'' and to celebrate, put Christi Hemme in underwear on the cover.
47	* 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 Music/TheClash about meaningless sex for the man's pleasure as opposed to genuine romance (which the game was actually about).
48	* The British SF short story magazine ''Magazine/{{Interzone}}'' had a couple of (rather atypical) bimbo covers in the late 2000s, which caused some complaints from readers about sexism and/or being embarrassed to read the issues in public. They did however balance it with one cover showing a beefy man in {{Stripperific}} Gothwear having blood drained from him. (Note that the covers are traditionally not related to any specific story in the issue.)
49	* The Play Magazine ''VideoGame/MuramasaTheDemonBlade'' cover. While the cover does show a scene that can happen (the octopus is a bonus boss), your character will not get their clothes torn off and nearly raped like this cover would have you believe.
50	** ''Play'', when they still existed, used to provide an entire ''magazine'' of pinups, ''Girls of Gaming.'' Interestingly, it was more fun to see the artists give love to obscure or long-forgotten characters (such as [[VideoGame/ElViento Annet]]) than it was to bask in the titillation.
51	* ''HobbyConsolas'' pulled off one for issue #69 (of all numbers). In a twist of fate, it's their least sold issue ([[LongRunners out of over 200]]).
52	* ''Magazine/HeavyMetal'' magazine, which features fantasy and science fiction comics, used various cover subjects in its early years. But it found that issues with pin-up covers sold better and gradually all of its cover subjects became scantily attired women. It helps that the magazine's founder and [=EIC=] is married to B-movie maven [[MsFanservice Julie Strain]], as 90% of most of these covers seem to be modeled after her.
53	* The February 2002 and August 2005 "Heal Your PC" covers of ''Maximum PC'' featured a [[NaughtyNurseOutfit babe in a nurse outfit]] applying a stethoscope to a computer.
54	* ''[[http://www.t3.com/ T3]]'' magazine frequently has bikini clan women on the cover, which, by their own admission, is to stop them being placed with all the boring technical mags.
55	** Other shiny-gizmo mags such as ''Stuff'' followed this trend.
56	* ''PC Format'' usually has a woman on the magazine's cover as a matter of course.
57	* ''Men's Health'' is a magazine about male fitness, so they usually have, well, a [[ShirtlessScene healthy-looking man]] on the cover. As expected, ''Women's Health'' does the same thing, except with a woman.
58	* Gay magazine ''Attitude'' does the same thing for different reasons.
59	* ''Magazine/NationalLampoon'': The first issue had a randy-looking young woman in a revealing costume on the cover, labeled "Sexy Cover Issue".
60	* ''Magazine/RollingStone'': Most people featured on the cover are shown in a cool, badass, sexy or otherwise glamorous pose. Two famous examples are Jim Morrison (Music/TheDoors) featured with his shirt off and Music/JanetJackson nude, with her then-husband covering her breasts while standing behind her.
61	* The July 2002 issue of anime magazine ''Animerica'', the "swimsuit issue", featured a bit of [[Anime/CowboyBebop Faye Valentine]] [[https://animericanotes.files.wordpress.com/2016/04/animerica-10-07-cover.jpg?w=719 eye candy]] on the front cover.
62	* ''[[https://psxdatacenter.com/games/J/S/SLPS-00783.html Standby Say You!]]'' for the [=PlayStation=] is an indie game where you're an anime director coaching a trio of voice actresses, with the entire gameplay being dedicated on recording voices, placing them on simulated tracks, and trying to get the best take available. The fanservice-y cover depicting three anime girls (which are supposed to be the lead actresses in anime forms) in [[https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51WRXpLvOpL.jpg skimpy swimsuits and bikinis]] suggests otherwise. What's even worse that despite the anime art on the cover, the gameplay is entirely in ''live-action''!
63	* ''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 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.
64	* As seen in [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popular_Photography#/media/File:Popular_Photography_May_1937_Cover.jpg this image]], the very first issue of ''Popular Photography'' back in 1937 featured a showering woman on the cover, assets obscured by a strategically-placed towel. This was not necessarily representative of the contents or typical of later covers.
65	* A lot of shonen and seinen magazines have photos of gravure idols on them, though seinen magazines tend to be way more salacious. This is with the expectation that it will boost sales, and that it would appeal to their [[AllMenArePerverts hormonal male reader base.]] Shonen Jump is the main notable exception, since it is aimed at the younger age bracket of shonen, and that it is one of the top selling manga magazines that adding gravure would be redundant in increasing sales.
66	[[/folder]]

Context Main / FanserviceCover