It's not every week that a cover story about hedge funds becomes a hot topic of conversation, but Bloomberg Businessweek managed to achieve that thanks to a provocative cover on its July 15 issue.
The cover, which can you see below, appears to illustrate the difference between real and perceived hedge fund returns in terms of the male anatomy. Even the language used to promote the feature article online is suggestive.
Cover story: The strong perception vs. the limp reality of hedge fund returns | http://t.co/0iu8wkoTzz— Businessweek (@BW) July 11, 2013
"The cover highlights the macho mythology of hedge fund managers, whose returns over the past decade have lagged behind the S&P 500," Josh Tyrangiel, the editor in chief of Businessweek, told Mashable in a statement. "Yes, we're making them the butt of a joke; we're pretty sure they can take it."
As you might expect, the cover sparked plenty of comments on Twitter, not all of which were positive:
>@Time has the best magazine cover I've seen this week: http://t.co/C8OoJhmOan BusinessWeek (@BW) has the worst: http://t.co/evSdgGAwdI— Julie Moos (@juliemmoos) July 11, 2013
Subtle. RT @ReformedBroker: Ohmygod this @BW cover... pic.twitter.com/fQPSbUvrGc— Ezra Klein (@ezraklein) July 11, 2013
My feed is filled with reactions to this BusinessWeek cover. Mission accomplished, I guess. http://t.co/UMtlHkGClM— Glorimar Perez (@GloriPerez) July 11, 2013
This isn't the first time that Businessweek has released a sexual cover that generated a lot of conversation. Earlier this year, a cover of the business publication appeared to show two airplanes getting it on, and another cover boasted a suggestive image of a pair of legs.
This week's @BW cover—our tribute to Marvin Gaye, Airplane, and vintage Economist. http://t.co/ZJSfhgct— Josh (@Tyrangiel) February 2, 2012