Breast we forget – 15 of Zoo Weekly’s most controversial moments
While Dr Mumbo would always have been nervous about being caught reading Zoo magazine in mixed company, he was nonetheless sad to hear of the death of a publishing phenomenon in a dumping more seismic than the ousting of a mere Prime Minister.
And while the title may have been downmarket, it was often brilliantly crafted. Designed to provoke and entertain, there were many moments of editorial brilliance. Here, Dr Mumbo celebrates 15 of Zoo’s cheekiest moments.
- The time they invited readers to win a divorce;
- The time they launched the hunt for Australia’s Sexiest Feminist, but got no entries;
- The time they launched a search for Australia’s Sexiest Wall (after a story of a German woman who married the Berlin Wall);
The time they were sued by Lara Bingle for using her on the cover during her “Where the bloody hell are you?” campaign. She objected to the speech bubble from her saying “I’ll make you come”;- The time they had the “Win a time machine” coverline. The prize turned out to be a clock;
- The time they offered the opportunity to win a boob job for your girlfriend (“The gift that keeps on giving”);
- The time they turned up at Kyle Sandilands’ wedding with motorbike banner ads saying “You can do better, Tamara!”;
- The time they had the “Win 72 Virgins!” coverline – it turned out to be a copy of the novel of that name by Boris Johnson;
- The time they brought the famous French ‘Spiderman’, Alain Robert, to Sydney to climb a skyscraper and bring the city to a standstill;
- The time they launched a search for Australia’s Hottest Horse Dentist after one sent in her sexy snaps;
- The time they put a 7ft 3in model on the cover (only to later find out she was a he);
- The time they celebrated Mary MacKillop’s beatification by recreating her life with a lingerie model kneeling before a dwarf Pope;
- The time they offered Oprah Winfrey $500,000 for a shoot when she was in town;
- The time they shot Julia Gillard’s stepdaughter topless draped in the Australian flag in the week Gillard was confirmed as PM;
- The time they offended must of Australia with a badly timed “Breast we forget” Anzac Day tribute.
Many of the highlights came under launch editor Paul Merrill, who these days helms Bauer’s real life titles. He shared some of the tales in his book A Polar Bear Ate My Had, and on stage at Mumbrella360:
Paul wrote a book about all this malarkey. You might not like it, but you have to admire it.
A Polar Bear Ate my Head: Misadventures in Magazines http://amzn.to/1Nz9v2l
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Considering the parlous state of Australian journalism at the moment, Zoo Weekly may as well be the Washington Post…..it catered to an audience, regardless of what people may think, it did report on things that deserved to be poked fun at…sure the femo nazis will celebrate, but I find the rubbish in the Tele more offensive– at least ZW didn’t sway elections and brainwash the public into believing that this pollie or that pollie was good/bad or worthy or otherwise. ZW was nothing more than a joke and claimed to be nothing more– unlike the Tele which claims to be a proper news source.
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Does anyone have the copy that featured No 12? Just asking for a friend.
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“A Polar Bear ate my Head” is a brilliant read. I personally will never forget the spread many years ago “Did this pig eat 49 Hookers”, nearly spat my drink.
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Australia is a safer place without it. Praise the Lord. Now we should see a marked decline in sex offences, what with ZW promoting “Rape Culture”. I didn’t read it, but I think the circumstances of its demise are ridiculous. Femo Nazis sums it up B-Man. I put them up there with the doctors who want to ban the sport of boxing from Australia (???!!) and the politicians who want to bring in licences for cyclists (along with revenue generating demerit points, obvs).
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In Europe they don’t seem to have an issue with racy mags…and their rape stats are way lower than ours. Goes hand in hand with their open drinking culture and yet nowhere near the violence we put up with. I will go out on a limb here and say that the media is not to blame for all the ills ( and morons) in our society…but then again, when we have an (ex) PM who seemed to blame everyone else especially the media for his problems, the faux outrage over ZW is no surprise…sure ZW was trash, but considering what you can easily find on the Web, ZW shouldn’t even register on the Outrage-o-meter.
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” must of Australia”? Surely you mean “most of Australia”.
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