No nudes is good news? End of an era for Playboy and lad mags

Like the ill-fated bunny that was boiled in the 1987 Hollywood thriller Fatal Attraction, this may be the end for Playboy magazine.

On Monday, The New York Times reported Playboy Enterprises Inc's announcement that from March next year, the magazine would no longer publish nude photographs of women as it simply can't compete with the digital world.

The first issue was published in December 1953, and had a circulation of 5.6 million in its heyday during the 1970s. The figure has now dropped to just 800,000.

Mr Scott Flanders, the company's chief executive, said: "You're now one click away from every sex act imaginable for free. And so it's just passe at this juncture."

The redesigned print edition of Playboy magazine will still feature sexy women in provocative poses, but they will not be fully nude.

It marks the end of an era for generations of teenage boys (and their fathers), for whom reading Playboy - which has been banned in Singapore since 1959 - was a sticky situation.

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ONE FM DJ Glenn Ong, 45, told The New Paper: "As assistant head prefect in secondary school, the other prefects and I used to do spot checks and confiscate copies of Playboy and Penthouse.

"We'd take them up to the prefects' room for the discipline master to inspect, but we'd enjoy ourselves first by reading them!

"We were actually told to dispose of the issues, but I brought some home."

Ong added that it was during his secondary school days in the 1980s when the "Playboy craze" was at its height.

CURIOUS

"Everyone was really curious about seeing naked women. I had a secondary schoolmate whose father subscribed to Playboy, and he would steal the issues and rent them out at school for $2 a week. Amazingly, he never got caught," he said.

"Playboy won't be Playboy without nude images. It seems like a desperate move to keep afloat, as it's been declining for the last couple of decades."

On the local front, lad mags met their demise even earlier.

Maxim and NewMan, featuring titillating pictures of bikini- and lingerie-clad women, closed down.

VIP, a local spin-off of Playboy, also folded in 2009 after about a year.

Even the Singapore edition of FHM, the most established and last one standing, published its last issue last month after 10 years of circulation.

Said Ong: "With magazines like Maxim and FHM, you can't exactly bring them home to your wife and girlfriend. At least with titles like Esquire and Men's Health, you can enjoy the articles with your partner."

Mr Kelvin Tan, editor of Men's Health Singapore, believes the magazine remains the No. 1 men's title locally because it provides "useful and exciting" content.

"Male magazine readers are much savvier these days and so they expect a better class of content than what was available and popular before," said Mr Tan, 35.

Mr Zul Andra, 34, editor-in-chief of Esquire Singapore, agreed that men's titles here "are for a different breed of guys".

"Esquire is known for its literary integrity and fashion credibility for inspiring men. You don't need nudity for that. And also, we don't treat women as inanimate objects."

Former local editors of FHM, Maxim and NewMan were unavailable for comment or declined to when approached by TNP.

For Kiss92 DJ Jason Johnson, who grew up in Canada, Playboy was a rite of passage for teenage boys, as "everyone's dad had it".

"Playboy was where we got to see what girls had been hiding from us," the 47-year-old said with a laugh.

"The irony now is that Playboy, which seemed like the most scandalous and horrifying thing back in the day, is now something people will remember with fondness and nostalgia.

"For my generation, it's associated with our youth and it's almost innocent compared to what you can find on the Internet these days."

For younger men like undergrad Sun Weijun, 23, magazines like Playboy and FHM have long ceased to be relevant.

"Having no nude images takes away the whole point of Playboy. But it doesn't really make a difference to Singaporeans because the magazine and website aren't available here anyway," said Mr Sun.

"FHM was an interesting magazine for my friends and I, as we had friends our age who would be cover girls. But even then, we didn't actually read or buy the magazine."

"Playboy won't be Playboy without nude images. It seems like a desperate move to keep afloat, as it's been declining for the last couple of decades."

- ONE FM DJ Glenn Ong