I don’t think I have heard of such controversy and media attention from one magazine cover and I don’t often write about things like this, but with such media attention, I thought I should throw my opinions into the mix of what, why and how?! The closest I remember to such attention for a publication cover was Miley Cyrus’ reinvented image on the cover of V magazine last year but even then, the #Kimye cover has proved to hit a bum note with a lot of people. I don’t really know what Vogue’s intention was for using this celebrity duo as their cover stars for the April 2014 cover but something tells me that it was a way to attract a wider/newer audience to the Vogue magazine market or a clever PR stunt to attract as much media attention as physically possible (and lets be honest, it didn’t do Miley any harm).
I think what really looks out of place is that Vogue have decided to throw a hashtag ‘#’ on the front cover to make the magazine look ‘hip‘ and ‘down with the kids‘, whether this cheapens Vogue’s brand identity or not, people will definitely be talking about this and most probably using the hashtag. Whether or not the pair are the #WorldsMostTalkedAboutCouple or not does not necessarily mean they should be placed on the cover of such an iconic fashion publication, I would have much rather seen Barack and Michelle, Kate & Wills or Brad & Angelina… Even Steph & Dom from Channel 4’s Gogglebox would have made a much more appealing cover!
I personally don’t like this cover and whether it was all for PR or to attract a new audience, all that can be said is that it falls flat, it looks relatively cheap and it doesn’t do the magazine any favours (much like Kim in the chosen dress), but if like the idea of Kanye West hugging what looks like a large meringue, this could be the magazine for you… Oh Anna, what happened?!