"Breast and Fairest". It was headlines like these from controversial lads' mag Zoo Weekly that prompted 23-year-old graphic designer Laura Pintur to co-sponsor an online petition three months ago calling on supermarket majors Coles and Woolworths to withdraw the publication from their shelves.

Soon afterwards, a 20-year-old Coles worker from Melbourne, Shannen (who does not want to give her surname) joined the campaign, writing to her union and store manager with an official complaint that selling the magazine contributed to an "unsafe" workplace and made her complicit in promoting "rape culture".

A recent edition of Zoo Weekly.

Now the two young Australians are claiming a partial victory, with Coles announcing that it will withdraw the provocative title from sale, though the supermarket giant stopped short of acknowledging that this is in response to the online campaign.

In a brief statement, the company said it had made a "commercial decision to delete Zoo magazine following a regular range review". A spokesman would not elaborate on the reasons for the withdrawal.