Last month Playboy announced they were no longer going to include pictures of naked women.   The reason,  pictures of naked women are so readily available and easily accessible on the Internet they are no longer a feature draw for Playboy.

Playmate of the month and Playmate of the Year fully dressed just does not sound right to me, however, beautiful women probably do look better with clothing, albeit scantily dressed and suggestive.

Back in the 1960’s, most of us said we only bought Playboy for the articles.  By 1975 the magazines monthly circulation was 5.6 million.  Most of the readers were men who faithfully adhered to the mantra – we only read it for the articles.

For me those fabulous stories by highly acclaimed authors of the day ( Salinger, Asimov, Bradbury, Updike, Cheever to name just a few) were my own main interest in the magazine but I suspect there were those who bought it for the pictures.

Today’s monthly circulation is down to 800,000.  Clothing the women is supposed to get it back up into the multi-millions.  Personally I am not sure this will work, but worth a try I guess.  Maybe they should include my blog as a feature item.

Seeking the Forbidden

This is yet another example of a topic I posted about last week.  Humans are attracted to things that are out of reach, challenging or taboo.   If we all walked around naked not only would naked photos not work as a marketing ploy for playboy, there would not be a plethora of these photos on the internet.

Accessibility can reduce interest (this is not an absolute of course).  It is a proven fact though, that a short fall of supply can drive demand.  Basically this is how hobby collections work.  The most expensive and prized collectibles are those that are hard to find.

And so an era ends

Good bye Marilyn Monroe, Pamela Anderson and Anna Nicole Smith, looks like you won’t be replaced by other Playboy icons,  the nudi era is coming to an end.   Let me wipe that tear away!