Celebrity

From: Peggy Wilkins <mozart@lib.uchicago.edu>, 18 Jul 2003
Subject: On celebrity and sales

I think that many of the "celebrities" PLAYBOY has featured in recent years did little to enhance PLAYBOY's reputation.


From:Dan Stiffler <calendar-girls@adelphia.net>, 18 and 19 Jul 2003
Subject: Scattered Shots; A-listers and Explicitness

The real problem with PLAYBOY's addiction to celebrity is that the magazine is willing to take anyone with the faintest hint of celebrity status and promote her on the cover... Why should an A-list celebrity strip for PLAYBOY when the magazine has been cavorting with C-listers? At one time, to pose for a PLAYBOY celebrity pictorial was to pose in the tradition of Monroe, Mansfield, Van Doren, Novak, Andress, Welch. Today, that tradition has been diminished... I don't think Cameron Diaz is going to be too interested in doing any kind of pictorial (nude or not) for a magazine that has stooped to the levels PLAYBOY has in recent years. PLAYBOY has damaged its credibility... PLAYBOY should kick its habit; no more pick-ups at the corner of Tabloid and Cable.

I don't think there will be 12 A-listers for each year. This would mean that some issues of PLAYBOY might have no celebrity pictorials. But it would also mean that each celebrity pictorial would have more value.


From:Dan Stiffler <calendar-girls@adelphia.net>, 22 Jul 2003
Subject: More thoughts on the Interview

At what point did PLAYBOY's content begin its decline? We all know it has declined... The decline began with PLAYBOY's desperate appeal for newsstand sales, desperate because PLAYBOY was willing to stoop in order to conquer. Think Jessica Hahn, Tai Collins, Uma Thurman, Suzen Johnson. These pictorials are unquestioned low points in PLAYBOY's decision making, but they also represent a general loss of class, a loss that has poisoned the well. If you are a "mover or shaker," are you really going to sit for an interview with a magazine that has the mindset of the National Enquirer?


From:Dan Stiffler <calendar-girls@adelphia.net>, 22 Apr 2003
Subject: The Danger of Celebrity

It is undeniable that certain celebrity pictorials create a sales spike. These spikes, when they happen, make the accountants happy. However, sales spikes, based on topical interest in a celebrity du jour, do not build a permanent readership.

PLAYBOY has lost much control over its primary content, the content it is emphasizing to the public... Celebrity pictorials are a quick fix, one that has pushed PLAYBOY away from the very principles that gave it a loyal readership in the first place. ... The editors need to reconsider the long-term effects of placing primary emphasis on that feature in the magazine.


Peggy Wilkins
Last modified: Mon Apr 5 02:10:24 CDT 2004