SI Swimsuit Issue - Do Blondes Have More Fun?

On a whim and based on Darren Rovell's interview with Sports Illustrated Covergirl

Source: Sports Illustrated

Marissa Miller (see the video below), I did a quick scan on how the Dow and S&P performed in years that the SI Swimsuit Issue cover featured a blonde versus a brunette. I gauged hair color based on thumbnails on the SI Web site.  Note: color of wet hair is hard to determine but here are the results...

44 covers from 1964 until now:

• 21 Blonde covers (including this year's) — average annual return of Dow 11.6%, S&P 12.5%
• 19 Brunette covers — average annual return of Dow 2.2%, S&P 2.3%
• 3 covers with multiple models of varied hair color
• 1 cover with a redhead (or so it appears)

When I shared these findings with Darren, he pointed out that the models' nationality also has an interesting result. According to Bespoke Investment Group, since 1978 the S&P has returned an average 13.9% when an American is on the cover versus a 7.2% average return when a model from another country is on the cover. (http://bespokeinvest.typepad.com/bespoke/2008/02/2008-swimsuit-i.html)

Between the Giants and Marisa Miller, are we in for a good year after all?