Anti-porn groups are calling for the removal of NBC’s new series “The Playboy Club” before the premiere has even aired, FOXNews.com reported Wednesday.
Groups believe the show, which is set in 1963 and centers on the lives of the employees at the first Playboy Club in Chicago, promotes pornography and the exploitation of women.
Anti-porn foundation Pink Cross is determined to shut down the show using a petition on the foundation’s website.
“What’s shown in ‘The Playboy Club’ is not real — Playboy definitely damages people. It’s pornography, it’s sex trafficking and it exploits women,” said the founder of Pink Cross, ex-porn actress Shelley Lubben.
“The series looks like it’s all cute, taking place back in the old days — it seems harmless, but then they show a quick clip of three people going at it in the bathroom. NBC is breaking the law with this show — they’re not meeting FCC standards.”
The nonprofit group Morality in Media has launched a similar petition on its website.
“We’re asking supporters to sign the pledge and to contact their local NBC affiliates and ask them not to air the show,” said Morality in Media executive director Dawn Hawkins.
Hawkins charges “The Playboy Club” glamorizes pornography. “We know now, years later, that pornography is very harmful to society. It leads to addiction in children and adults, increased sex trafficking violence against women — and ‘Playboy’ is really the root of all of this. We just don’t want to see it glamorized any further, which it will be if it’s aired on NBC,” she said.
With NBC in fourth place among broadcast networks, new president Steve Burke is under intense pressure to increase ratings. But while “The Playboy Club” might help the sagging ratings, it could also run afoul of federal law, as scenes involving simulated sex and nudity could be prosecuted.
NBC’s Salt Lake City affiliate, KSL-TV, has refused to run the show once it airs, saying that their station is “completely inconsistent with the Playboy brand.”
The series stars Eddie Cibrian, husband of country superstar LeAnn Rimes, who plays a lawyer and keyholder at the club.