It was October when Playboy made the earth-shattering announcement that it would be going ‘non-nude’ in the new year. I say earth-shattering, I mean earth-quietly-bobbing-in-its-rocking-chair. Because Hef’s influence had long waned, and The Bunny looked to be another staggering print dinosaur lurching around, gasping its final breaths.
It may well still be, but dinosaurs don’t go without a fight, so Playboy is doing what every flailing brand does: get the kids on board. The cover-up comes off the back of 2014’s launch of a safe-for-work Playboy.com, which saw a rise in traffic of 400% … tens of millions flocking, and the average user age dropping a decade. The millennials, good for all businesses.
What some may not have predicted would be what else would come with the shift. You probably expected the same mega-air-brushed Pam Anderson. But in her skimpies instead of draped over a mid-century sofa, backdropped by an indoor banana plant. Wrong. We’ve got the mid-10s safe-bet: an Instagram model. And what’s more, the cover of Playboy’s first non-nude issue since 1972 takes its cue from Snapchat; the ultimate ‘youth App’. The New York Times have received an advance copy, and report an American Apparel/Terry Richardson aesthetic, which corroborates the brand’s millennial-push. Interesting times, indeed.
