FORTUNE: Worse for Ware?

…Here’s some feedback on the ill-fated Ware Fortune illustration that caught my eye. The comments come from the discussion at thoughtbrain. Make sure to click the photo to jumbo size for all the keen snark.

From reader Marke:

The problem I’d have with this cover is not that it contains “little jokes & jabs” at corporate American (and the government), but the fact that that’s all it contains.

Had maybe 20 or 30 percent of the little illos been jokes, I think everyone has enough of a sense of humor to handle it. But by making the whole thing anti-corporate, it does make it look like Fortune commissioned something with the specific purpose of jabbing corporations, and then everyone things, “What’s with that?,” and that becomes the story, not the 500 list, and the focus of the issue is lost.

Admin writes:

Sounds … like Fortune didn’t research (Ware’s) work well enough…. Just look at his New Yorker covers, they are all a sarcastic response to our culture: [1, 2].

Nick said:

Maybe Fortune magazine rejected this cover because it’s just not that good. Ware’s New Yorker work is subtle, mischevious, and true. I particularly like the composition of the 2006 New Yorker Thanksgiving cover, and the marvelous colors of the 2009. They’re great! I just don’t think the Fortune cover compares. That it’s anti corporate America is just icing on the cake.

…I like the Greenspan LubePro myself.