Why do these wordsearch magazines have random women on the cover? Who are they? Why on earth is Jennifer Lopez on there?

by chiefmilkshake

15 comments
  1. J-Lo is the current World Champion at wordsearches.

    Also you’re not being very nice to the bloke in the 5th one. Or is he a bearded lady!?

  2. I’ve always assumed it was to make them more attractive to women (in the minds of the marketing team) by making them look like women’s magazines. There’ll probably be a J-Lo themed crossword in that magazine, to tenuously justify the cover

  3. It’s to grab your attention.. imagine the same book with no one on them at all, not as enticing.

    But if you’re scanning through you’re like “oh hey it’s J-Lo”.. “oh it’s a cross-word, actually I could do with buying a cross-word for my journey”.

    I doubt there are very few people that specifically go to that shop with the mindset of buying a crossword, so they rely mainly on impulse buys after grabbing your attention.

  4. It’s “aspiration porn”. In the same way, advertisers try to persuade you this cola or perfume or car is the choice of wealthy, sexually attractive people; if you buy this, you can be rich and beautiful too.

    Puzzler is selling a glamorous lifestyle that is unattainable to 99% of the people who buy it. Sure, some people who do arrowords get rich and famous. But it takes a lot of hard work as well.

  5. I think it’s to make them look like other ‘women’s glossies.’

    Red Dragon for 2 quid is a bargain though!

  6. If I was J-Lo I’d be pissed off at the ‘endless fun and challenge’ tagline they put with her. 

  7. Pretty sure I remember Stephen Merchant saying he appeared on one once without his permission.

  8. Every women’s magazine has either a celebrity (90% of the time a female one) or a stock photo of a smiling woman. Every puzzle magazine also has stock photos of women.

    I’ve never understood why, but it’s what people who buy these magazines expect, they probably see a dip in sales if they do something different.

  9. They get picked from the Puzzler’s Wives entries the male readers send in. Some men like the idea of their wives being fingered in the Post Office queue.

    Maureen Clayton, Edith Green, on the cover of a puzzle magazine. Code Code Code(word)

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