How would you save Playboy?

[Ace1965]

First and foremost STOP WITH ALL THE GODDAMN AIRBRUSHING!!! Quit making girls totally unreal. If some of the premium nude sites like Hegre Art and others aren't relying totally on airbrushing then so can Playboy.

I agree with others that say to have more natural Playmates.

Make the Centerfold spread more than about 6 pages long.

Increase the overall pictorial count to 4. If the magazine is supposed to be about women, then show more of them.

If a celebrity is not going to be at least topless, then don't put her in the magazine. I would prefer this to be only total nude but I know that is asking for too much.

Just a little pet peeve of mine, give the Playmate of the Year the cover of the June issue like it's always been. To not put the PMOY on the cover is inexcusable to me.

[John C. Holmes]

Originally Posted by Ace1965

If a celebrity is not going to be at least topless, then don't put her in the magazine. I would prefer this to be only total nude but I know that is asking for too much.

Amen! I would like permission to decree this the Kim Kardashian/Heidi Montag Rule.

Just a little pet peeve of mine, give the Playmate of the Year the cover of the June issue like it's always been. To not put the PMOY on the cover is inexcusable to me.

Unfortunately the PMOY has only graced the cover twice this decade. This is the reason why Playmates don't matter. (Yet Kendra somehow does matter...) I remember a time when Hef would get a block of time on network TV to proclaim the new PMOY every year. Oh how I miss those days...

[Ace1965]

Originally Posted by John C. Holmes

Amen! I would like permission to decree this the Kim Kardashian/Heidi Montag Rule.



Unfortunately the PMOY has only graced the cover twice this decade. This is the reason why Playmates don't matter. (Yet Kendra somehow does matter...) I remember a time when Hef would get a block of time on network TV to proclaim the new PMOY every year. Oh how I miss those days...

I would also add Olivia Munn's name to that rule. I was so looking forward to at least seeing her tits but ended up with nothing.

[Rocky de Sade]

Dates with Hugh's ex-wives to every 1000th subscriber. Sublet the Playboy Mansion. Collectible scratch-n-sniff issues.

[se7en]

the mansion up for sale was 500 S Mapleton Drive, bang next to to pb mansion. It was bought in 1996 for $6.7 million. Now obviously times are hard all over so he wants a very reasonable $27,995,000 for it!!!!!

seems a trifle rich, but it's been sold. It just proves that times may be hard but there is money out there somewhere....

[RyderKnightley]

Don't know if this will save it, but maybe it should realise what it is; a nudie book.
I flicked through the current issue (Jan/Feb 2010) and was amazed at how little pussy was on display. I don't mean it should become a gyneacology mag like the majority out there, but we want to see more than we do in lads mags.

[RyderKnightley]

Playboy has always marketed to a certain readership. Over the years the original readership got older, many have passed on. So like all products the magazine had to find new younger readers. Here is where I think one of the problems lies.
I bought Playboy for the quality of the girls, but also for the written material. I found it educational in many areas of life (politics, sociology and many others). Over the years the written material has remained of high quality (although some of the interview subjects weren't upto much), but the quality of the girls has diminished. This is one of the reasons that I stopped buying it and I would imagine why others did so too.
Added to this is that I don't think it is a magazine which appeals to the youth of today. Not being a youth myself, I am only putting forward a view that I have gained from my dealings with the young. If you look at the likes of Nuts or Zoo, they are just wall to wall tits (even on the cover) and the top shelfers are more explicit than any of the David Sullivan publications were back in my day.
If Playboy wants to survive it would have to change and become more like the competition. This seems to be against te grain as most products aim to be different from the crowd. Do I want to see playboy becoming another mag with page after page of held open shots? No.
Assuming that there is still a future for print media. Could there be another way for Playboy to survive. Playboy has lost a lot of sales. Many of those are likely to be people like me who still have a few years left (God willing) who have stopped buying it for one reason or another. Having been on this forum for a few years now, I feel that my views are held by many others. One common theme is to shave or not to shave. Another is the issue of silicon. Could Playboy win back some of its lost readership by catering to the likes of people like me rather than chasing the young.
Why not have older playmates as well as the younger ones. Ban silicon and favour any model who still has some pubic hair.
Being a playmate is no longer a step to stardom as it once was. Who was the last playmate to become famous for something other than a scandal? So why not look for older women. Many of them are more attractive and have more sex appeal than their younger counterparts. There is more variety with natural breasts because of their shape and the way gravity and mother nature act upon them.
Would I buy this new look Playboy? I would certainly give it a go. Imagine turning to the centrefold to discover that the girl looks totally different from the girl the month before, she may be a brunette or a redhead; and blondes won't be excluded (not even of the dyed variety). She will have a natural figure and may be bald, partly trimmed or have a full bush (I don't expect the 70's style bushes to make a return, nor would I want them to). Imagine reading the data sheet to discover that this vision of beauty was born within a few years of you and the next month there could be a girl young enough to be her daughter. Now there is an idea. We've had playmate twins and triplets, what about mother and daughter playmates? It would also be nice to read that the featured playmate didn't want to have a career as an actress or model, but wanted to settle down and run an animal rescue organisation (or some other job that most of us can identify with). This may keep the idea that I used to have about playmates alive instead of it being dashed by seeing them going onto harder and harder pictorials and porn or prostitution. Really what I want is variety.
I stopped buying Playboy well over a years ago and stopped buying other titles long, long ago. I miss having something physical to flick through and I miss the fiction and the features that made Playboy something different from the rest.

On a related point, as I stated in my previous post, I had a flick through the current issue. I had no knowledge just how bad things had become since I stopped buying it. One issue covering two months. Not only that but the banner stated "Massive Double Issue". The magazine was no thicker than I remember a regular monthly issue being. The December and January issues both used to be about twice as thick as this current issue.

[snowchild]

Hi everybody, I'm new to this forum and I recently discovered this interesting topic.
There are many extremely good arguments about "how to save Playboy" and at this point one really risks to make repetitions...
My basic opinion is that Playboy should return to a style in which more room is provided for the reader's and viewer's imagination. I am currently discovering for the first time the 60's and 70's Playmates, for most of you those are likely to be well-known names, but not for me. I have been so impressed when I looked at their images, that I have almost fainted. They give way to imagination, they are extremely seductive, the girls all have their own peculiarities, they are all so different...
of course I am talking about a different time or age, today it would be difficult simply because too much is given and shown too fast.
At least in my opinion.
I don't have any right to claim an opinion from a critical and professional perspective, I am just considering Playboy for what it has represented.
Playboy was a trendsetter in its golden age, if you like to call it like that. Today it could still be that by not following too much any kind of conventional market strategy. It is a great brand, I think it really can afford that. It could impose itself again.
Besides, I have heard a lot about the girls "photoshopped to death". That's probably another problem.
In short, if Playboy returned to a more "genuine" style, it would still attract a lot of audience, even young people like me who are beginning to appreciate the "old style", which represents a novelty each time one takes a look at it.
And there is another thing I'd like to add: there was more intimacy between the viewer and the girls. In what sense? Well, the girls all seemed to be observed during a true intimate moment, in which they also seemed not to be aware of someone's look. During other "moments", they were aware of it, but it seemed like as if they truly wanted to share their intimacy with the viewer. It all looked so realistic, you really felt something for them. They weren't exposed at all, they were like a vision.
And this gives a lot of room to imagination, I think.
Pure art, if I am allowed to say that.............................

[Ellie]

Interesting point: A young boy ( 14-15) I know recently came across a picture of Cynthia Myers. He saw one of her nude shots and it basically blew his mind. My boyfriend was talking to him about it and, since he thinks it's funny that I'm a PB fan, he started joking with this kid that I would get him more pictures. So, I laughed in that sort of ' I'm going to kill you later' way and said sarcastically, " Oh yeah, I'm going to give a 14 year old porn!" To my suprise, the kid then replied: " Nah, I don't want any more nude pictures of her. I want to see pictures of her dressed. Like, what she would look like if I saw her walking down the street."

I just thought I would bring this story up since a ton of people have said putting more pictures of Playmates " out and about" in their day-to-day lives would help the mag. It seems that might be a good idea! Apparently it helps the pervy teen imagination

[ramblingman]

I don't think there will be any meaningful changes until after Hef dies. After that, Playboy can try and rebrand itself, but it may already be too late.