Sorry, suckers -- this is Maxim

[Peggy Wilkins]

I wanted to pass on some comments I posted recently on the PLAYBOY
Cyber Club message board regarding the Maxim influence in PLAYBOY.
This is slightly edited for context.

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I find Maxim entertaining, but I think there is still a need for a
magazine with more sophistication.  If people want Maxim, they
will buy Maxim; why would they go after an imitator?  PLAYBOY should
have a sense of humor, and should feature that more prominently than
in the past, but they don't need to go all frat boy on us.  It just
makes them look like Maxim imitators. They need to find their own
niche; they haven't found it yet.

For example, in the October issue in the "PLAYBOY TV" feature (page
42), there's a rectangle at the bottom called "Spot the Fake: Night
Calls Episode Titles" where the answer to the quiz (if one can call it
that) is:

   "Sorry, sucker. They're all real", say hosts Tiffany and Juli.

That sentence positively reeks of Maxim, which is always calling their
readers names. I don't find any sophistication at all in being called
a sucker, it's funny but in a very juvenile way. We accept it from
Maxim because it's what they do -- it's original for them.

I just don't see this as being a good style for PLAYBOY. If people are
"graduating from Maxim to PLAYBOY" as they are always saying, it's not
going to be much of a graduation with PLAYBOY being little more than
an imitator with nudes.

I think they could and should aim higher than the lowest common
denominator. That "Sorry suckers" comment was made for one reason and
one reason only -- because Maxim does it, and they feel Maxim
breathing down their neck. It's time to show some spine and put out a
good magazine again, not just one that's "doing the best we can do" in
today's world, to paraphrase a recent Hef quote. I will never, never
be convinced that the only road to go down is the obvious one, the one
that Maxim has already paved. Maybe PLAYBOY's editors just don't have
enough energy left after all those parties to pave their own
road. They don't even seem interested in looking -- well, that's what
it looks like from this point of view, anyway. They paved their road
long ago, and now are happy to let it all go and pass on the torch to
someone who has ambitions and goals that are much too short sighted
and simple. What a disappointment!


Peggy Wilkins
mozart@lib.uchicago.edu