Lads Mags Face Cover Up By Supermarket Giant

Supermarket heavyweight Sainsbury’s has begun shielding shoppers form the front covers of men’s magazines sold in its stores, employing “modesty covers” usually reserved for adult titles to preserve customers’ sensitivities.

The cover-up is effective in all of the retailer’s 760 stores nation-wide, affecting several publisher’s flagship titles, including FHM, Maxim, Loaded, Nuts and Zoo.

The supermarket’s shelves will now carry the magazines as high as possible, with only mastheads visible to the public. Other titles may also face censure by the store, although this is expected to take place on an ad hoc basis and will be dependent on which photos are used on covers.

The move is designed to protect young shoppers, and is in response to concerns from customers who disapproved of raunchy images on the magazines’ covers.

Ria Konkon, magazine buyer at Sainsbury’s, was quoted by today’s Guardian, explaining the retailer’s action as “an ideal solution.”

“The title of the magazine is revealed but the front cover isn’t,” Konkon explained, “ensuring that customers have a choice without reducing the number of titles on offer.”

Sainsbury’s: www.sainsburys.co.uk