I know, I know — who would expect for Playboy to make the move to clean up its content right now? If anything I would think that when people are down in the dumps they would want to see more and more naked, naughty women. But alas, the profit imperative is always lurking (or, in this case, beating down the door) and therefore Playboy is looking to the Web to solve some of its advertorial problems.
According to the Associate Publisher of Playboy Digital, John Lumpkin, the site will no longer be “peppered with girls” because the company just has to make it a more friendly environment for conservative advertisers. AKA the ones that pay the big bucks.
So here’s a bit of what’s happening:
- the launch of Playboy Forum – a culture and lifestyle news section
- segregation of “sexy photos” to the Girls section
- less emphasis on promoting The Club, which houses more racy content that can be accessed for a fee
- Advertisers will be offered more types of skins and preroll opportunities
So who are they trying to get on to put their ads on their site? Packaged goods, prestige grooming and fragrance and gaming companies — that’s who. So far, they’ve got Bridgestone Tire and Patron to show for it. Call me crazy, but I don’t think that a tire company and a tequila producer would have had too much trouble with edgy content in the first place?
