Return Of The Bunny

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Editor Peter Piegl opted to divert from what could be regarded as the modern Playboy formula, producing a magazine that is less flamboyant and slightly more serious. It's a luxury afforded to him by Playboy, which maintains a hands-off approach to most of the 28 versions that appear across the world. As Hugh Hefner himself says in the opening pages, the local edition is "imbued with South African sensibility and style and reflecting the values that Playboy represents worldwide with special brio and energy."

There it goes, dressed in white and pink and with a local stunner dangling from its masthead. Playboy, the must-have guide to all things for discerning well-to-do men, has returned to South Africa after more than a decade in absence. But this new Playboy has nothing to do with the first incarnation and seems to cast its net wider than the traditional audience.

A Touch Of Modesty
But browsing through the premier April issue, graced on the cover by Tracy McGregor, the famed nude pictorials appear to be much more demure than what one would expect, sticking above the belt. It is part of the design - a new approach by Peter and his collaborator, publisher Jeremy Lawrence.

"When I was discussing my position, I said categorically that I wouldn't be involved if there was full-on nudity," explains Peter, whose considerable media experience includes picture editor and managing editor of FHM South Africa, the popular local "lads mag". This newer breed of magazines has cozied up to the average guy on the street with its raunchy (but generally non-nude) pictorials, lewd jokes and plenty of guffaws over anything involving sex, sport or boozing. Magazines like Playboy, Arena, Esquire and GQ position themselves above this formulaic - but lively - bunch.

Peter fittingly describes lads mags as "your buddy with jokes and entertainment, et cetera - it's a distraction from your life" and stresses the point that this is not what Playboy is about. He takes the responsibility to heart with a sincere intensity and smartly defends some of the choices made for the launch issue. It is certainly a controversial one - both the magazine content and its very existence. One current affairs website highlighted the opinions of several media experts, each questioning if this is a good time for a new magazine. Especially one at a costly R45. Yes, Playboy does not come cheap, though it has to be said that the first issue's production quality shines - only the best paper for Heff's true mistress.

No Cheap Date
So what do you get for nearly fifty rands? No hyper-sexed nudity and certainly no ditzy interview questions to reveal the model's strangest sex moment. You still get to see some naughty bits, but there is a definite lean towards the artistic. Tracy McGregor's pictorial feels slightly too close to high-street fashion advertising, but it is certainly worth scrutiny, while European glamour girl Maria Eriksson gets the opening spot with a selection that conjures reminders of the first few pictures in a Playboy Lingerie shoot. The first new Playmate, Amy Bridger, takes the main pictorial, including the immortal centerfold. Though she does get a chance to tell us about her turn-ons and turn-offs, its all class.

Jeremy agrees with maintaining a sense of taste: "Our models have a lot of input in what we do. We don't want to do anything that they don't feel comfortable with." Recruited to the team by Peter, who met him at FHM, he is a media veteran with fifteen years of newspaper and magazine experience. After FHM he needed something different.

"For me it was a conscious choice [to leave lads mags]. I've outgrown the market, I've got nothing left to offer." He was also attracted to the article legacy: "It's a no-brainer: you've got a sixty year history of top writing." Good writing is a pillar of the Playboy world, its credibility to place alongside the pin-up girls, and it was the main attraction to both men. So naturally they take this part of the gig seriously.

"I get it for the articles"
In between the tasteful nude pictorials are all kinds of things to read. Here the difference between the local and U.S. editions (which also doubles as the International version) is striking. The U.S. edition is politicized, indulges in moments of crassness and invariably tells a few dirty jokes. In contrast, the Playboy SA has a slightly higher brow. The main feature is a seven page journey on traditional monarchies - a surprisingly interesting read and definitely worthy of the claim on memorable authoring.

Still, the thought of it does force you to stifle a bit of a yawn. The other articles are significantly lighter in tone and topic. Perhaps a tad nepotistic, but still fun is the Hugh Hefner interview. A bit less so is the Twenty Questions with Steve Hoffmeyer, but there is consolation with a write-up on top chefs using offal - the bits of the animal you usually don't want to know about - and a brief nudge-nudge-wink-wink read on oral sex (and, inevitably, how to get the good kind). A look at future technologies satiates the engineer in you, while a look at 60 albums you should own gets your playlist sorted.

Peter frowns slightly when I point out the lack of dirty jokes and dirtier cartoons, both Playboy mainstays. He is clearly not keen on peddling smut and (while tapping on in the U.S. edition a cartoon with a few can-can dancers sans their undergarments) considers such things to lower the tone. This is partially a matter of principle, since he handles the topic of pornography with slight disdain. But there is a practical side to this as well. Everyone knows someone who had to forego his stack of beloved FHM and Maxim mags because his better half banished them from the house. Lads Mags are proof that you don't need nudity to invite the disapproval of women - something both Peter and Andrew saw first hand at FHM.

Playboy
Amy Bridges, Playboy's April playmate

The Ladies, they love it
But Playboy South Africa opts to err on the side of art: it's not nudity that offends, but how it is presented. As Peter explains it, he believes the market prefers fewer naughty bits and would shun Plaboy if it went a bit too far: "They're not going to have this magazine on their coffee table. It would be associated with pornography and I don't think that is the right thing for Playboy South Africa." Especially not with the launch issue: "You can always push the boundaries later, but if you start with a gynaecological study of your models, you can't step back from that."

What appeals to him is a magazine that has a sense of style, a dash of artistic license and the holy grail of magazine sales: cross-over potential between males and females. Miss McGregor reflects on that in her pictorial profile, saying that the shoot was "going to be more like art".Who knows if the tactic will work, but unofficial polling at the launch and amongst friends didn't result in spontaneous violence (or worse, steely looks of disapproval) from the fairer gender. Peter is also pretty set on not venturing too far into the pornographic: "You will get nudity in this magazine, but if you want anything harder, go online." He sums up his defence for the artistic nude as such: "We don't need to be as edgy as the other magazines. We don't need to go down that road. You can have nudity, but if it's beautiful, if your readers are happy, if your advertisers are happy and you get the rubberstamp from the girlfriends and the wives - that's exactly what I want."

It's a valid point, especially in the age where pornography is easily accessible. This makes Playboy that much more reliant on the rest of its content - it's unlikely most readers will fork out so much money just to see the models being a tad familiar. Here a different kind of controversy has reared its head. In the months before the launch Playboy SA proclaimed it wanted a 45% black male reader chunk in its demographic pie. So it was a bit strange to find no pictorial with a black model and no article that would specifically appeal to black readers. Even the opening columns (every issue rotated to different authors) were penned by comedian Chris Forrest and columnist David Bullard. Was David Kau not available?

"The first issue was difficult in terms of timing," Jeremy explains, "We have approached different people on this. But timing was a problem. The way it turned out was purely... I don't want to it sound as if we didn't plan our magazine - we don't want to apologize for our content. But how it turned out wasn't entirely intentional." The Playboy offices certainly don't appear to be a front or bastion for some form of race propaganda machine, and it is true that launch issues tend to take on a life of their own Amongst assurances that they have more writers and wider cultural liaisons lined up in the future, Peter and Andrew lament how much they want to bring Playmates of other colours to Playboy's pages. But it's not been easy so far and they have found it hard to sell the idea to black femme fatales. But they keep trying, pointing to the nude black model used in the casting-call ad. Hopefully South Africa will soon have Playmates of every colour.

House Bunny
Speaking of which, what do the guys look for in a Playmate?
"It's not about boob size!" Jeremy says with a grin, "We look for the girl next door - the idea of that is to give her a face and a voice and an opportunity to celebrate beautiful women. It's the showcase the women of our country. We look for that more than anything else." It's is also a matter of being the brand ambassador - Playboy is an empire built on the bunny logo and spearheaded by the magazine and the temptations of the Playboy Mansion. This has played a big role in Playboy's future, expanding into luxury goods, night clubs and other things that appeal to the man of means. The Playmate is a figurehead to that and as the local franchise expands into online and entertainment ventures, you can expect to see more of Miss April and her future monthly compatriots.

Will it work? That is for the the market to decide - the magazine business is as buoyant as the stock market, but with far fewer guarantees and slightly grimmer outlooks. But Peter and Andrew certainly believe in their vision and are certain that readers and advertisers will agree with them.

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