Playboy
is no longer going to feature images of naked women in its once vaunted
magazine. The iconoclastic magazine has
announced, beginning with its March 2016 issue – some 63 years after its debut,
the once revolutionary publication is now a follower. It’ll be more like Maxim than Penthouse.
The
publication, founded by 89-year-old Hugh Hefner, has been losing money in the
United States, though the company has been profitable, based on licensing deals
and foreign editions. For a surprising
moment, the magazine declared it is turning its back on the classic sales
formula that sex sells.
In
a digital world where free porn is readily available, how can a printed
magazine with photos – and no videos – compete?
Playboy’s
monthly circulation dropped from 5.6 million 40 years ago to a paltry 800,000
now – over an 80% decline. It used to
land prime-time celebrities to pose, including Madonna, Sharon Stone, and Naomi
Campbell.
I’m
not sure how the strategy to be the Cosmopolitan for men will pay off. It is very odd to think the publication that
endured all kinds of court cases, boycotts, and legal scrutiny, will now just
suddenly give up what had been hard fought for. Playboy defined female beauty
for decades. Now it defines what?
Maybe
we’ve entered a new era. Are we saying photography can’t compete with moving
images? Is a word now worth a thousand
pictures?
It
is interesting that we’re reverting back to the basics. Playboy thinks talking about nudity or sex –
rather than showing it – will entice more readers. Erotic books have exploded at a time when
free digital porn has also grown by big numbers. Erotic books like 50 Shades of
Grey merely work with words and no images but the ones readers conjure up in
their heads. Perhaps Playboy is onto
something here.
On
the other hand, it seems crazy that the magazine that revolutionized the American
sexual culture is now going into hiding, a victim of the free speech it had
championed. Now our society is so liberal
that we can access nudity 24-7, for free, in the comfort and privacy of our
homes or wherever. But why is America
tiring of photography?
Maybe
the magazine should rethink what kind of models it features and how it captures
them. Perhaps their photography grew
boring and unimaginative. Maybe the
magazine needs a makeover, but not a ban on nudity. It needs to rethink the role it plays in
helping Americans have a sexually fulfilling life. It can advance the
conversation without removing its signature content. Words mean a lot, but Playboy may not survive
on words alone.
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Brian Feinblum’s views, opinions, and ideas expressed in this blog
are his alone and not that of his employer. You can follow him on Twitter
@theprexpert and email him at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels more
important when discussed in the third-person. This is copyrighted by
BookMarketingBuzzBlog © 2015
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