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Vanity Fair Recycles Convoluted Celebrity Cover, Not Paper

Vanity Fair's third annual Green Issue is currently on newsstands. You've probably noticed the cover-Madonna bearing the weight of the world on...

Patrick James
By Patrick JamesApr 19, 2008
Patrick James
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Vanity Fair's third annual Green Issue is currently on newsstands. You've probably noticed the cover-Madonna bearing the weight of the world on her shoulders-which is almost as ridiculous as last year's. Almost. Anyway, our complaint isn't with the cover. No, it's not about the Material Girl per se; it's about the material of the magazine. For the third year in a row, Vanity Fair's Green Issue was not printed on recycled paper. We appreciate the fact that such a massively-distributed, mainstream magazine even does an environmentally-themed issue. But when you consider that none of Condé Nast's publications are printed on recycled paper, and that the singer on the cover of this one has a larger carbon footprint than some cities (offset shmoffset), the gesture feels pretty hollow. Are we overreacting? Or does this seem like the summit of hypocrisy to you as well?

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