Valley PR Blog

Bad magazine cover, no accident.

By Angelo Fernando on November 20th, 2009 In Hype!

The buzz about the Sarah Palin photo on Newsweek’s cover is roiling people up. But while it is spilling into a sexist argument, I find it a useful example of how images are used in buzz creation.

Magazines know this so well, that people ought not be shocked at these choices. A photo by itself is not so powerful unless the accompanying headline draws it out. In this case, alluding to The Sound of Music, brings up rich images of controversy:  a flibbertijibbet, a will-o’-the wisp,  a clown!

Of course the running shorts is aimed at raising hackles, because it is so inappropriate. Running? Or is it a nod to the not-so-hidden agenda of Ms. Palin’s future run? As columnist Susan Estrich notes (by the way the original headline in the article, See Sarah Run, is more apt than the one the subs created in the Arizona Republic) the unlikeliest people will come to her defense. Newsweek, which has nicely seeded that controversy, will benefit from this ‘mistake.’

Maybe it learned from some real mistakes in the past, running such boring covers, and trying to use that word Palin-tology. Newsweek’s editor’s defense, covers the expected points: “We apply the same test to photographs of any public figure, male or female: does the image convey what we are saying? That is a gender-neutral standard.”

Palin shot back, and was well situated to do so, on her book tour. With the social media side as well, in a statement on Facebook that garnered 3,176 comments. I don’t think even Newsweek gets so many comments.

The perfect moonbeam in their ink-stained hands.

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