Magazines with glamour images fly off the shelves like sliced bread: The reason: Sex sells

As a teenager when I walked through magazine aisles in magazine and book stores, I would be surprised to see the number of magazines with glamour images on the covers. Not only did women-centered magazines like Vogue or Cosmopolitan or Maxim had such covers but I would be amazed to see glamorous ladies showing off their skins in magazines related to Men’s Health. I along with my friends would not resist looking at the covers and would discuss on why such covers on Men’s magazine. Moreover, I would be amazed to see how quickly the magazines with such glamour images would fly off the magazine shelves like sliced breads. Now with more understanding of the advertisement business and my experience as a photographer, I have found the answer. The reason is that “sex sells.”

Sex plays an important role in advertisement, therefore, this photographers aspiring to enter the field of glamour image photography should take it as a “mantra” for success. A magazine cover has an important role in promoting a magazine and the success in magazine sales lies on how glamorous the magazine cover is because if the cover is irresistible, it will be more likely to be a hit among men and women alike – women pay for the cover because they are inspired by the cover and they want to emulate the poster character and try be as glamorous, and men pay for it because they cannot resist her, and that’s why we say sex sells.

In the past, average women responded negatively to covers with extra glamorous images or with explicit sexual content. However, now with the advancement in electronic media and the ubiquity of pop culture, women have been more glamorized and tend to love covers with such glamour images. Therefore, as photographers, we need to give extra emphasis in trying to create glamour images while doing female shots. If a cover of a magazine has a glamour image of a well toned female in a stunning pose, it will definitely appeal to the people of all ages or sex, and it definitely will have a better value in the market. We all still remember how popular the cover of Vogue go when teenager Miley Cyrus bared almost everything for the shot of the infamous glamour image that caught the attention of the world. So as photographers, need to keep that in mind and try to create sensual glamour image because we know that “sex sell.”

Good light!
-- Michael