Seeing as how the Janet Jackson indiscretion during the Super Bowl sent lightning bolts of outrage from coast to coast and all the way into congressional hearings, we turned our researcher loose on Sports Illustrated’s 40th anniversary swimsuit issue.
The scorecard: 10 nipple violations (they were visible) and four cases of total lack of swimsuit, not counting those that were painted on. No congressional hearings so far, but a boy in Belpre, Ohio, was suspended for taking the SI to 6th grade. He tried the but-they-did-it-in-the-Super Bowl defense. It didn’t work.
The astounding contrast in reactions aside, SI pulled in a reported $35.9 million in ad revenue and will rack up 1.5 million in newsstand sales, bolstering paid circulation of 3.1 million. We love our sports, eh?
