Newsweek slammed for their 'shocking' cover

In what is fast becoming Newsweek editor Tina Brown's signature style, the magazine's latest cover is intended to shock...and send issues flying off the shelves.

For the magazine's Foodie Awards issue, which lists the 101 best places to eat in the world, the cover shows two spears of asparagus dangling suggestively above a woman's open mouth.

Newsweek's interpretation of ‘food porn’ has been slammed by critics as having all the subtlety of a sledgehammer.

Describing the cover as 'really bad', Politico's Dylan Byers argued that Brown's bid to create controversy as a way of boosting sales was the wrong decision.

'Brown missed the obvious opportunity to sell the magazine by tapping into the widely desired reservoir of real food porn - which gives readers the promise of indulging in what they are unlikely to obtain (but just might!) in real life,' wrote Byers.

But at least Newsweek saw the funny side to the cover, joking on their blog that 'no asparagus were harmed during the shooting of this cover.'

The food issue follows a cover showing a grinning Mitt Romney beside the caption: The WIMP Factor - is he just too insecure to be president?

Earlier this year, the publication courted controversy with their cover of Obama complete with a rainbow colored halo, which was captioned: 'The first gay president ever?'

Food porn: Newsweek has been criticized for using a shock-and-awe cover