Reflections on Playboy: February 2009 <i>Playboy</i>: loaded with eye candy, and not just the obvious kind

January 26, 2009

February 2009 Playboy: loaded with eye candy, and not just the obvious kind

If you buy Playboy at a newsstand, as I do, you can have your pick of three different covers: this one, one with Holly Madison, or one with Kendra Wilkinson. Although I can admire Holly’s ambition and Kendra’s athleticism, I’m particularly charmed by the sensitivity and vulnerability of Bridget Marquardt. Hers is the cover I had to take home.

If I say so myself, the February 2009 issue shows how much I’ve grown as a Playboy critic over the years. With the exception of the October 1985 transition from staples to glue binding that required the foldout to fold out differently, the January 2000 issue introduced the biggest single set of format changes in my lifetime. In early 2003, I still couldn’t handle it. As part of an email discussion group for Playboy fans discussing the magazine’s future, I whined that change is bad. (I don’t use the email address on that page anymore; my new one is on this page.) I still think that good taste usually comes from a balance between tradition and innovation, but in those days I was a tight-ass about it. In hindsight, my nostalgia for a sequential, book-like table of contents seems pointlessly rigid. But now I can go with the flow, acknowledging that change is sometimes good.

Unlike the crypto-Marxist utopians of Adbusters, I have no objection in principle to a high volume of advertising in magazines. However, I love being able to find the table of contents on page one of the February 2009 Playboy. Thankfully, I don’t have to work my way through a maze of full-page ads to find it anymore. The readership is well served by this user-friendly editorial decision.

Speaking of tradition, the capital-I Interview has preserved the classic visual appeal of its opening page, with an all-italics bio of the interviewee and a row of three photos at the bottom (in this instance, of House star Hugh Laurie). But for the first time, those photos are in color. The “Grapevine” department in the back of the magazine is also in color now, the better for us to discover the shade of pink or brown of female celebrities’ nipples. Don’t look for the politically conscious “Forum” department between the Advisor and the Interview anymore. It has been moved behind the feature articles. If you like Playboy, the current issue has plenty to feast your eyes on even besides the wonders of the female form.

Posted by Brian Sorgatz at 1:40 PM

January 26, 2009

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