Most Shocking/Controversial Magazine Covers.

Rolling Stone
January 2006
Kanye West as Jesus

When Kanye West posed as Jesus Christ to promote his new album, he caused a public outrage accusing him of blasphemy.
He responded by saying:
“You want me to be great,”, “but you don’t ever want me to say I’m great?”

Rolling Stone
August 2013
Boston Bomber

Rolling Stone magazine is facing an outcry of nationwide proportions over its controversial decision to put a stylist picture of Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev on its front cover.
Accused of "anti-Americanism" and "glamourising terrorism." the main headline reads "How a popular, promising student was failed by his family, fell into radical Islam and became a monster".

Esquire
April 1968
The Passion of Ali

The cover was perhaps mostly controversial for appropriating Ali's trials with "The Martyrdom of St. Sebastian," a popular theme through medieval art . Ali refused to join the military because of his religious beliefs. Authorities arrested him for refusing to be conscripted into the military, he was found guilty on draft evasion charges and stripped of his boxing title.

Life Magazine
November 1965
War In Vietnam

Paul Schutzers captured this arresting image of a VietCong prisoner being taken prisoner by American forces during the Vietnam War. Photography and news coverage like this helped to turn the American public against the Vietnam war.

Time Magazine
April 1966
Is God Dead?

This cover has been called the most controversial of all time. The related article concerned the “death of god movement” that had sprung up in the 1960′s. The cover and article enraged readers.

MAD Magazine
April 1974
The Finger

This cover was controversial for obvious reasons. Newsstands and stores across the country refused to stock the issues and returned stacks of them to Mad, who put them in storage. So many were returned that 30 years later, Mad gave copies out free to readers who signed up for subscriptions.

Esquire
December 2000
The Crotch Shot

This shot of Clinton was said to be inspired by the Lincoln Memorial, Instead people saw a direct Crotch shot as an obvious reference to the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

Time Magazine
December 1998
Devil Horns on Clinton

This was one of several magazine covers that featured Bill Clinton during the Monica Lewinsky scandal. In 1995, Lewinsky was an intern at the White House during Clinton’s presidency, and they had an intimate affair. The scandal broke when Lewinsky confided in a colleague in January of 1998. The scandal eventually resulted in Clinton’s impeachment. The top of the letter “M” in the Time masthead appear to be resting on the top of Clinton’s head as horns. The devil horns were written off by Time as an accident of masthead placement rather than a deliberate act.

Vogue
March 2012
Thin Adele

The British singer looked amazing on the cover of Vogue's March 2012 issue, so amazing that some people thought the Grammy winning songstress looked Photoshopped. The actress was drawn into controversy when fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld called her "a little too fat," however, she dismissed the comments in the pages of this edition of Vogue.

Rolling Stone
September 1981
Jim Morrison, Hot, Sexy and Dead

A decade after his death, this portrait of jim morrison on rolling stone's cover sparked rage thanks to the caption, which read "Jim Morrison - he's hot, he's sexy and he's dead".
The piece inside was slightly less offensive, profiling the musicians who because most successful after premature end.
The attention-grabbing headline did the job and proved their theory rather nicely.

The New Yorker
July 2008
The Obama Couple Satire

This cover by famous New Yorker cartoonist Barry Blitt was heavily criticized by both the McCain and Obama camps during the 2008 US election. While the piece was meant to be a satire of allegations lobbed at the couple by their detractors, its inopportune appearance during a campaign didn’t have Obama’s supporters laughing as hard as the magazine intended.

Newsweek
May 2012
The First Gay President

On 21 May 2012 Newsweek's declared that Barack Obama is the "First Gay President," playing on the reader's knowledge that Obama isn't himself gay, but his support for same-sex marriage earns him an honorary rainbow halo.
This cover has been called "controversial" and "pretty shocking," for misleading people with this title.

Rolling Stone
June 1970
Charles Manson

While the 2013 cover of Boston bombing perpetrator Dzhokhar Tsarnaev might have elicited a great deal of scandal, it wasn’t the first time that Rolling Stone got into trouble for making a criminal look like an icon. On their June 1970 cover, the magazine chose to feature a rather glassy-eyed image of Charles Manson, a serial killer who, together with his commune style Manson family, was responsible for several gruesome deaths in the Hollywood Hills in the summer of 1969. Though the issue also featured an interview with Manson from behind prison bars, the effect of the magazine cover was that of giving rock star status to a figure unworthy of anything more than a sentence.

Vogue Hommes Japan
August 2010
Lady GaGa Meat Dress

This meat dress was condemned by PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) who labeled it as "Bloody Violent".
Vogue Stated that "LADY GAGA'S meat dress was a powerful political statement, rather than just another attention-grabbing outfit. The star says the look referred to a speech she made, The Prime Rib of America, which urged the US military not to discriminate against gay men and lesbians from serving in the army. She says that the law prevents the military from enjoying "the greatest cut of meat my country has to offer".
PETA Responded by saying “No matter how beautifully it is presented, flesh from a tortured animal is flesh from a tortured animal,” PETA president Ingrid Newkirk said in a statement. “Meat represents bloody violence and suffering, so if that’s the look they were going for, they achieved it.

Candy magazine
Winter 2013-2014
Lady GaGa Reveals EVERYTHING

Uncensored Version

This time the star has revealed absolutely everything on a new magazine cover.
The star has posed naked on the front cover of Candy magazine, which celebrates transvestism and transsexuality, wearing nothing but a scorpion on her nipple, a fur coat and a moustache. Everything else is on show. Hide your children.

Rolling Stone
July 2010
Lady Gaga Machine Gun Bra

Uncensored Version

This cover became infamous for Gaga's "machine gun bra." It's probably one of the most shocking costumes the Applause singer has worn. The criticism was amplified by the Newtown, Conn., shootings that happened around the time the issue hit newsstands.

Q Magazine
Feb 2010
Lady GaGa Dick?

Uncensored Version

Lady Gaga always knows how to cause a scene and this magazine cover was no exception. During a time when there were rabid rumors about Gaga being a man, she decided to confront the issue directly by wearing a strap-on for her photo shoot.

Lui Magazine
April 2014
Topless Rihanna

Uncensored Version

We already learned by now, when there's nudity, there's also controversies, this time Rihanna appears topless on the cover of French magazine lui.

Sunday Times Magazine
Feb 2013
Rihanna Vs. Princess Diana

Rihanna has been called a lot of things since her meteoric rise to success, but the latest comparison may be a bit more unusual than most. The "Stay" singer's face is digitally stitched to match the visage of Princess Diana on the latest cover of the UK's Sunday Times Magazine, a decision that has understandably caused a buzz among fans and critics alike.

Time Magazine
January 1939
Hitler as Man of the Year

This cover featured an elaborate illustration of Hitler playing “his hymn of hate in a desecrated cathedral while victims dangle on a St. Catherine’s wheel while the Nazi hierarchy looks on.” Baron Rudolph Charles von Ripper was a Catholic that fled Hitler’s Germany, and the artist of this disturbing piece. By 1938, Hitler had firmly seized power in Germany, taken over Austria and Czechoslovakia, and had been given a free hand in Eastern Europe by the English prime minister of the time, Neville Chamberlain. Time has had to defend this choice throughout history, and at the time defended it by stating that the “Man of the Year” was a title bestowed on the person who had most influenced events of the previous year.

Time Magazine
March 2012
Non-Latino Person in "Latino Voters"

This 2012 cover about Latino voters sparked controversy by including a person who wasn't Latino at all.
Time Magazine did apologize for the mistake later.

Purple Magazine
February 2010
Kanye West Poses as Jesus

Lindsay Lohan was photographed by the ever controversial Terry Richardson for Purple Magazine in 2010. Apart from the fact that the subject is Lindsay Lohan, the cover was controversial because she was posed in a Christ-like pose, with a crown of thorns adorning her head.

New York Magazine
February 2008
Lindsay Lohan as Marilyn Monroe

The always controversial Lindsay Lohan graced the February 2008 cover of New York Magazine, recreating Marilyn Monroe's 'The Last Sitting' photography session of 1962. Since Lohan's spread featured the troubled young actress in various stages of undress and featured near-explicit nudity, the issue garnered a lot of attention.

V Magazine
September 2011
Naomi Campbell Tied

The cover of V Magazine's September 2011 issue was intended to pay homage to Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodovar's 'Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!" However, many readers were concerned that it was demeaning to supermodel Naomi Campbell and that it glamorized sexual violence.

Esquire
November 1970
Monster of Mỹ Lai

Lieutenant William Calley Jr. a U.S. Army platoon leader who was convicted of murdering 109 unarmed, innocent South Vietnamese civilians in the Mỹ Lai Massacre, posed with Vietnamese children for the November 1970 cover of Esquire magazine causing a public outrage.

The Nation
November 2000
George Bush mascot

Bush's face was morphed with Mad icon Alfred E. Neumen's and he was shown wearing a badge that read "worry." The scene seemed to have taken the mockery too far for Bush loyalists.

W Magazine
November 2010
Nude Kim Kardashian

Uncensored Version

When Kim Kardashian appears in the buff for any magazine, it's always controversial. In this case, the celeb posed for W Magazine's November 2010 cover with her lady bits covered by a tagline by artist Barbara Kruger. Additionally and perhaps more controversial were the outtakes of this shoot in which Kardashian is naked and dipped in silver paint.

Vogue
April 2014
Kanye and Kim

It has been speculated that Kanye begged to get his fiance on the cover. The image has caused some to say that the integrity of the magazine has taken a hit. Many people (including a few celebs) have commented on Facebook and Twitter that they were going to cancel their subscription to the fashion mainstay.

Time Magazine
April 1997
Ellen’s Coming-Out

Time’s cover and exclusive story left no doubt in the minds of all Americans that Ellen was, in fact, gay. Even in 1997, coming out could be perilous for a star’s career. While it may now seem like a mere bump in the road due to Ellen’s stunning success, at the time TV outlets in rural America pulled her show.

Vanity Fair
October 2013
Miley Cyrus at 15

Cyrus courted controversy in 2008 when she participated in a suggestive shoot for Vanity Fair where she was photographed by iconic shutterbug Annie Leibovitz, she was 15 years old which is the reason why most people thought it was shocking.

Rolling Stone
September 2013
Topless Miley Cyrus

This cover, in many ways, harks back to the previously mentioned 1999 Britney Spears issue - a teen popstar choosing to mark her transition to a proper, adult singer in the most public, in-your-face possible - the cover of the Rolling Stone. By the time this issue was released, the world had, by now, been introduced to Miley's new, sexy, tongue-waggling, outrageous persona but this cover cemented the fact that Hannah Montana was truly dead.

Time Magazine
May 2012
Breastfeeding Mom

Time Magazine shocked a lot of people with this cover, in the picture is a 26-year-old mom Jamie Lynne Grumet breast feeding her, walking and probably talking 3 year old son.
The accompanying story takes a look at the rise in so-called attachment parents, but many people accuse time magazine of 'attention grabbing' tactics to achieve a sell increase.

Dazed & Confused
September 2012
Azealia Banks Blowing up a Condom

The British magazine reported that the controversial cover, with rapper Azealia Banks blowing up a condom, had been banned in seven countries before it was even released!

Vanity Fair
August 1991
Demi Moore, Pregnant and Nude

Uncensored Version

This cover was shot by celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz and was decried as shameful and disgusting when it was released. Some stores sent back the issue, or only sold it with a brown paper covering the “offensive” image. It has spawned countless celebrity nude pregnancy shots done in the same fashion, and helped to launch Demi Moore’s career into the stratosphere.

Time Magazine
August 2007
Devil Horns on Billy Graham

The blogosphere was rife with rumours about this cover. This was probably not intentional. Time Magazine has claimed that all of its “Devil Horn” covers through the ages are mere coincidences

Bloomberg Businessweek
Feb 2012
Airplane Style

This is the one where airplanes do it airplane-style—probably the most provocative illustration of a company merger that ever decorated a newsstand. Plus, the banner on the corner refers to Facebook's IPO as "friends with benefits." Aside from the obvious controversy that would naturally land with the cover image, it seems as though the design department at Bloomberg Businessweek might be feeling a little deprived.

Time Magazine
March 1990
The Assisted Suicides

Time brought the uncomfortable issue of assisted suicides front and center with this 1990 cover.

People Magazine
October 2008
The Gay Father

After continuous speculation, this cover proclaiming that Clay was gay was not a surprise. What was a surprise was the fact that he was a new father.

Golfweek
January 2008
Caught in a Noose

This cover was so controversial that the editor was fired after it created widespread outrage. In January 2008, Golfweek featured a hanging noose on its cover to publicize their article about Golf Channel host Kelly Tilghman’s use of the word “lynch” in reference to Tiger Woods. Dave Seanor, who lost his job as a result of the “racially provocative” cover, told the New York Times: “Sitting in the editor’s chair in this day and age is sort of like walking a tightrope.”

Foreign Policy
May-June 2012
Body-Paint Niqab

Egyptian-American writer, Mona Eltahawy, has penned a controversial cover article for the latest Foreign Policy magazine, entitled: “Why Do They Hate Us?” In it, she argues that women must finish the revolutions started by the Arab Spring, and a semi-nude woman models a body-paint niqab.

New York Magazine
October 2011
Pregnant Grandma

Uncensored Version

A woman in her 60s replicates the now iconic image of the pregnant Demi Moore on the cover of Vanity Fair in 1991, this Photoshopped image illustrating a story about new parents over the age of 50 stopped consumers dead in their tracks for being "too weird".

GQ Magazine
November 2010
Glee Gone Wild

The Parents Television Council was up in arms when GQ released their November 2010 issue, featuring a racy shot of Cory Monteith sandwiched between a scantily clad Diana Agron and Lea Michele. Members were horrified that the Glee stars appeared in the Terry Richardson photo. While GQ’s editor defended the cover, Agron took to Tumblr to apologize saying that “these photos do not represent who I am.”

National Lampoon
January 1973
If You Don’t Buy This Magazine, We Kill This Dog

While this cover didn't do much more than make people laugh when it came out despite its violent overtones, Ronald G. Harris’ famous cover shot definitely caused some controversies, because in Pre-Photoshop days, this mean that somebody actually had to point a gun to the dog's head for this photoshoot.
Unfortunately, many years later, someone did find the dog model in his home and killed him.

Playboy
October 1971
First Playboy African-American Woman

Darine Stern became the first African-American woman to appear on the cover of Playboy. At the time, it was considered a daring decision.

Vanity Fair
August 1993
K.D. Lang and Cindy Crawford

The cover was meant to be as controversial as the country star’s career. According to the cover story, Lang got more grief from the country music industry over her decision to join PETA than her decision to come out as a lesbian.

Wired Magazine
June 1997
Apple - Pray

When this magazine went to press, Steve Jobs had just rejoined Apple through Apple’s acquisition of his NeXT Software Inc. While the cover was a bit more pessimistic than the story it was meant to illustrate, it remains one of the top magazine covers of all time. Back then Mac fans would have done anything they could to help the ailing corporation. Luckily we know that Steve Jobs did rescue the failing company to once again become one of the tech giants in the world.

Seventeen
May 2003
Sarah Michelle Gellar’s Zombie Arm

This horrendously manipulated stock photo of Sarah Michelle Gellar made the mag send an expensive purse by way of apology. Gellar returned the purse since she didn’t wear leather. While the practice of using stock photos for covers is common, flagrant abuse of Photoshop is something that the art department and editor usually catch before print time.

The New Yorker
Feb 1993
A kiss is not just a kiss after the Crown Heights Riot

This cover showed a Hassidic Jewish man and a black woman kissing. It came after tensions between the two groups spurred intense riots in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn.
New York's Hasidic community was outraged. One rabbi called it a "a tasteless publicity stunt" and "unrealistic" while another called it "nauseating."
Most People called Spiegelman a racist for showing a white man kissing a black woman rather than the alternative.

Rolling Stone
Sep 2010
True Blood Cast, Naked and Covered in Blood

Uncensored Version

Naked and covered in blood—totally OK when you're a newborn, but it becomes less acceptable somewhere between birth and your success as an actor in a top TV series. Rolling Stone's gory, full-color image raises many questions. Are they really trying to make arterial spray sexy? Did the True Blood cast commit some atrocity? If this is a show about vampires, have they just been playing with their food? Rolling Stone obviously wanted to get people talking about this issue, and talk people did. Some freaked out about the magazine's visibility on grocery store newsstands and others simply professed to find the graphic image cheap or distasteful.

Rolling Stone
January 1981
John Lennon and Yoko Ono

Annie Leibovitz took this shot just hours before John Lennon was shot outside of his apartment building, the Dakota, in New York City on December 8, 1980. Leibovitz originally wanted to take the shot of Lennon alone but he insisted that his wife be in the pictures. People urged the rolling stone not to release this photo in respect to his death, but the magazine published it anyway.

Time Magazine
June 1994
An American Tragedy

In 1994, OJ Simpson was accused of murdering his wife, Nicole. In 1995, he was acquitted after a long and highly publicized trial. The photo used on the cover of Time Magazine was manipulated to make OJ look darker in skin tone and more menacing.

Newsweek
August 2011
Michele Bachmann The Queen of Rage

This Newsweek's issue features a Michele Bachmann cover that's sure to stir up controversy.
The cover shows Bachmann standing against a stark blue background, looking directly into the camera with a wide-eyed expression. The headline advertising the magazine's story reads, "THE QUEEN OF RAGE."
"Rage" is a word that doesn't appear in Newsweek's actual profile of Bachmann, though author Lois Romano does criticize what she calls the "radical" nature of the Tea Party that Bachmann champions.

The New Yorker
July 2013
Bert and Ernie come out

The cover features Sesame Street characters Burt and Ernie cuddling on a couch while watching the U.S. Supreme Court rule in favor of marriage equality.
Although most people considered it "amazing", but not everyone was happy, some people labeled it as "Innocence. Lost."

OK Magazine
June 2009
Michael Jackson Dying

Fans were upset over the magazine’s decision to publish the last photo of the artist taken before he died. Sarah Ivens, editorial director, said that the cover decision was made since they wanted to stand out from all of the tribute covers that were dominating the stands that week. Jackson died on June 25, 2009 after being given a cocktail of drugs by his physician. While the worlds news chose photos that showed their love for Michael, OK Magazine decided to show this disturbing image of Michael.

Time Magazine
June 2010
The First Transgender on a Magazine Cover

Laverne Cox was the first transgender ever to be featured in a magazine cover, so the controversies was natural as the story, written by Katy Steinmetz, examines how a growing awareness of trans people is shaping the way we define gender. Cox has more to say about "taking people on their own terms" and letting go of preconceptions about trans people in the behind-the-scenes video below.

Vogue
April 2008
Racist King Kong Cover

This cover of model Gisele Bundchen and sports star Lebron James was considered to be a racist portrayal of “King Kong”. Images that portray black males as threatening “reinforce the criminalization of black men,” said Damion Thomas, assistant professor in the Department of Kinesiology at University of Maryland. The cover was supposed to showcase two stars with excellent bodies, in keeping with the “Shape” theme of the issue.

Revolver
November 2010
Taylor Momsen with a Rifle

The magazine was criticized for having Momsen on the cover dressed in lingerie and holding a rifle. People felt that Revolver was "glamorizing guns".

Rolling Stone
March 1999
Britney Spears at 17

Uncensored Version

This issue of Rolling Stone hit newsstands when Spears was just 17, three months after the release of her smash debut, Baby, One More Time. The provocative poses in her childhood bedroom and accompanying sexually charged copy outraged families, whose children already idolised Britney. Photographer David LaChapelle recalls the moment her manager walked in on the shoot, furious the singer was posing so scantily clad and demanding to know what was going on. "She went, 'Yeah, I don't feel comfortable,'" revealed Chapelle. "At first I felt betrayed. But as soon as he walked out, Britney said 'Lock the door' and unbuttoned her shirt wide open."

Newsweek
November 2009
Sexy Sarah Palin

She has been parodied in porn films and when she hit the campaign trail in 2008 was celebrated for her good looks. But former Alaska governor Sarah Palin was not pleased when she appeared on a November 2009 issue of Newsweek wearing nothing but a pair of running shorts, a sweater, her glasses and a smile. The photo was originally taken to accompany a Runner’s World profile but mom-of-five branded the Newsweek cover as being “sexist” and “unfortunate.”