Playboy magazine’s sales have been plummeting. Newsstands and advertising percentages have dropped and circulation is 200,000 short of the expected 2.6 million rate. The first half of 2009 may not have pleased Playboy and its head honcho Hugh Hefner but a recent revamp in the form of a blue-haired cartoon character on the cover may soon catapult the magazine into an auspicious deal.
News racks this Friday will see Marge Simpson on the cover of Playboy as part of the magazine’s commemoration of “The Simpsons’” 20th anniversary and a nod to its heyday in the 70s. Playboy hopes that the “The Marge Simpson Cover” will attract the younger generation who may not identify well with Hefner and give a boost to magazine sales.
“We knew Marge’s pictorial would appeal to a large demographic,” Playboy’s editorial director Jimmy Jellinek said. “This cover and pictorial is just another example of how we’re evolving our editorial content to continue to reach men in their 20s, and also maintain the elements of the magazine that have attracted readers for more than 50 years.”
The magazine will feature a three-page pictorial of the cartoon Marge in lingerie. Scott Flanders, the new Playboy CEO, told the Chicago Sun-Times that it is “obviously tongue-in-cheek.”
“It had never been done, and we thought it would be hip, cool and unusual,” he added.
Playboy’s low sales are seen by Media Industry Newsletter online editor-in-chief Steve Cohn as a result of consumers turning to the internet media for a taste of nudity and Hefner getting old.
But Jellinek contests saying that “Playboy is a state of mind and a way of being, not a pre-prescribed age. We knew this was something that all of our readers would enjoy, because the show has been on for 20 years and it resonates with adults of all ages.”
