Cover Coverage

I’ve had some time to digest the cover. I’ve decided I like it.

It’s joyful and silly, which might be just the right move. I expected the 50th anniversary to be monumental, something big that would try to top last year’s “seven continents” theme and first-ever trip to Antarctica.

Then the rumors started trickling in. The amassing of past cover models, the zero-gravity Kate Upton experiment, the twelve rookies, the Barbie tie-in—it sounded like SI was racking their brains trying to come up with some “event,” some marble pillar of publishing history.

But then the cover was revealed, and it was just three smiling topless girls, knee-deep in water, showing off their butts. Caressing each other like kittens. Pretty care-free. The first cover for all three models.

I loved the Antarctica shoot. As I mentioned at the time, I was worried about the gimmick, but I thought it ended up yielding some pretty stellar, iconic shots. But this year, I feel like SI said “Screw it, let’s just make this fun.”

Now, I think it could have been more of a nod to the anniversary. Giving Kate a three-peat and setting her alongside Christie and Elle would have been historic. Giving Anne the cover to celebrate her tenth consecutive year (10 out of 51—that’s almost 20% of all swimsuit issues!) would also have been good. Or, considering the captions at the bottom say PAST, PRESENT, and FUTURE, maybe the threesome could have been one of the veterans (past), Kate (present), and a rookie (future) to tie into that theme.

But at the end of the day, what is this magazine? It’s a bunch of photos of pretty girls in bathing suits.

Better to display some asses than to stick your head up them.

h/t to user “alluringbeauties” over at Bellazon for the vidcaps.