No-nudes were apparently not good news at Playboy magazine.
The 63-year-old legendary men’s magazine is bringing back nude models in its upcoming issue — one year after banning naked photos in an effort to boost circulation and attract more mainstream advertisers.
That effort obviously has failed.
The move comes four months after Cooper Hefner, the son of founder Hugh Hefner and an outspoken critic of the move to ban nude models, was installed as chief creative officer last October.
Issues published under the no-nudes policy featured both scantily clad models and could-be naked women with strategic parts of their body covered up.
But that will all change with the March/April issue now hitting newsstands. The issue trumpets the change with a cover headline: “Naked is normal.”
“I’ll be the first to admit the way in which the magazine portrayed nudity was dated, but removing it entirely was a mistake,” Cooper Hefner tweeted Monday. “Nudity was never the problem, because nudity isn’t a problem. Today, we’re taking our identity back and rediscovering who we are.”
The new issue displays breasts and butts, but not full frontal nudity that had typified the earlier incarnation before the switch with the March issue a full year earlier. While the “no nudes” permitted greater ability to display the magazine on newsstands, the rise in newsstand sales apparently did not offset the plunge in subscription sales.
The new issue introduces model Elizabeth Elam as Miss March 2017 in a photo spread shot by photographer Gavin Bond.
The staff that had overseen the transition to no nudes is turning over once again.
Hugh Garvey, who took over as editorial director from Jason Buhrmeister only five months ago, resigned late last month.
Garvey had been the deputy editor. Creative director Mac Lewis also resigned around that time and was replaced by his assistant creative director, Chris Deacon.
Rizvi Traverse, the investment company that took over majority control in 2011, had been scrambling recently to sell the company or attract new investors, sources said — efforts that so far have been fruitless.
Ben Kohn, managing director of Rizvi Traverse and acting CEO of Playboy Enterprises, had as recently as late October said that the company had no plans to reverse its no nudity policy. Kohn feared a switch back to publishing nude model would dampen opportunities for licensing and merchandising deals, insiders said.
On Monday, he declined to comment on the switch by the magazine back to nude models.