Esquire has some of the most amazing covers year after year.

Let’s have some fun.

Test your knowledge of Covers That Sell.  I’ll show you 4 of Esquire’s 11 covers in 2014.  Using Canadian sales data, your task is to rank them from best to worst.

Guess in which order they ranked:  #1, #2, #3 and #11 worst.

Here are the 4 covers (no peaking, pan down slowly, as answers are provided at the bottom.


July 2014 (Fatherhood)

December 2014 (Channing)

January 2014 (Meaning of Life)

November 2014 (Sexiest)

And the Answers Are:

#1 Seller in Canada…Jan 2014, Meaning of Life,  sold 9,912  (Meaning of Life annual theme in this time slot works)

#2 Seller in Canada…Mar 2014,  Channing,  sold 9,300  (Proving Studs still sell)

#3 Seller in Canada…Jul 2014, Fatherhood, sold 7,245 (In 2013 this theme in this time slot featuring Brad Pitt was #3 too)

#11 Worst Seller in Canada…Nov 2014, Sexiest Women Alive, sold 4,658 (This annual theme bombed when moving away from typical background template…too understated…see examples of standard background template below).  If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.