Is Playboy marketing to kids?
Categories: Kids 8-11, Teens & tweens, Love & Sex, In The News, Media
Winnie the Pooh, Mickey Mouse, and the Playboy Bunny. Which of these does not belong? Obviously, the Playboy bunny symbol has little in common with Winnie and Mickey, but that doesn't mean they can't be friends, right? That would seem to be the thinking of a High Street retailer who stocks products featuring all three side by side on the shelves.
This mingling of cute children's characters with the mascot of Playboy magazine has at least one customer hopping mad. The Reverend Tim Jones discovered the inappropriate product placement while shopping at a Stationery Box store in the U.K. with his seven-year-old daughter. There on the shelves, right next to the Mickey Mouse stationary and the Winnie the Pooh notebooks, were similar products featuring the well-known bunny logo.
Reverend Jones left the store in disgust, but later returned with a petition objecting to the marketing of Playboy products to children. He got the store to move the offending items pending a "merchandising review", but believes the problem lies in the source - Playboy Enterprises.
Of Playboy's marketing strategy, he says, "Ultimately, what they are trying to do is normalise pornography even among much younger children. It is indirect but not accidental. It is deliberate, intentional, cynical and wicked and must be resisted. If cigarette companies started producing pencil cases and pens for children, people would go bananas."
A Playboy spokesperson insists the products, which include pink pencil cases, notebooks, folders, diaries, gel pens and ring binders, are intended for adults only. "We were surprised to discover that Playboy stationery has been so inappropriately positioned. Playboy's target audience is 18 to 34-year-olds, so we clearly did not authorise or approve the placement of our product next to such well-known children's characters. We will be reviewing this situation immediately."
Maybe so, but this High Street store isn't the first to be accused of marketing Playboy products to children. W H Smith stores do it without apology, saying they strive to reach a balance that meets the needs of all customers "whilst not acting as a censor".
What do you think about this? Has the Playboy bunny lost its sex-appeal to the point where it is now just another cute children's cartoon character? Or is Playboy really trying to normalize porn in the minds of children?
This mingling of cute children's characters with the mascot of Playboy magazine has at least one customer hopping mad. The Reverend Tim Jones discovered the inappropriate product placement while shopping at a Stationery Box store in the U.K. with his seven-year-old daughter. There on the shelves, right next to the Mickey Mouse stationary and the Winnie the Pooh notebooks, were similar products featuring the well-known bunny logo.
Reverend Jones left the store in disgust, but later returned with a petition objecting to the marketing of Playboy products to children. He got the store to move the offending items pending a "merchandising review", but believes the problem lies in the source - Playboy Enterprises.
Of Playboy's marketing strategy, he says, "Ultimately, what they are trying to do is normalise pornography even among much younger children. It is indirect but not accidental. It is deliberate, intentional, cynical and wicked and must be resisted. If cigarette companies started producing pencil cases and pens for children, people would go bananas."
A Playboy spokesperson insists the products, which include pink pencil cases, notebooks, folders, diaries, gel pens and ring binders, are intended for adults only. "We were surprised to discover that Playboy stationery has been so inappropriately positioned. Playboy's target audience is 18 to 34-year-olds, so we clearly did not authorise or approve the placement of our product next to such well-known children's characters. We will be reviewing this situation immediately."
Maybe so, but this High Street store isn't the first to be accused of marketing Playboy products to children. W H Smith stores do it without apology, saying they strive to reach a balance that meets the needs of all customers "whilst not acting as a censor".
What do you think about this? Has the Playboy bunny lost its sex-appeal to the point where it is now just another cute children's cartoon character? Or is Playboy really trying to normalize porn in the minds of children?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
MamaCass 5-22-2008 @ 8:14AM
I'm not buying Playboy's response. How many 18-34 year olds do you know that use pencil cases and three ring binders?
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lshanel 5-28-2008 @ 12:25PM
how come you are not buying play boy bunny
kristin 5-21-2008 @ 7:49PM
playboy is very big in japan. not only stationary, but also clothing. for children. it can be quite shocking when you first come here.
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Jessica 5-22-2008 @ 2:59PM
I don't know how common it is elsewhere, but here in the land of the sun (fl), the girls tan playboy bunnies into themselves. As in, I guess (?) they put a playboy bunny sticker on (usually on their abdomen) while they tan and then remove the sticker so that they are tan around it. It makes me want to vomit every time I see a 14yo walking around with it.
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Mav Erick 5-22-2008 @ 3:33PM
Playboy mag is more respectable than christianity... I wonder if the Rev Tim Jones saw the BBC documentary that claims the virgin Mary was only 13 years old when she gave birth to baby Jesus. I find it more distasteful to groom children with a religion based on a God that makes 13 year old girls pregnant, than a shop selling the bunny logo of a mag that only prints nude women of 18 plus.
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erose 5-22-2008 @ 10:15PM
I think that the playboy notebooks should be in the adult section of the store not with the children school books,they should put the notebooks with the condoms and ky jelly.
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Judy 5-23-2008 @ 11:48AM
I don't know. I'm almost 30, I use 3-ring binders and might be seen with a pencil case. None of the things I saw in the link were things I could say I would never buy anymore.
Inappropriate placement? Maybe. I've been in stores and seen the school supplies, and seen lots of things I didn't think were appropriate. I've been in the toy aisles and seen toy tie-ins for PG-13 and R-rated movies alongside toys for preschoolers. I've seen the Hulk and Batman on t-shirts and shoes for little boys.
Personally, I'd be more inclined to let my kids use these Playboy notebooks that have a Bratz doll, which I think is worse, since it is DELIBERATELY marketing a look and attitude toward little girls.
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Mav Erick 5-23-2008 @ 4:06PM
Just when we think we've got rid of the obsessive control freak Mary Whitehouse, the Reverend Tim Jones pops his purist head up and starts spitting and hissing about nothing.
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shanel 5-28-2008 @ 12:25PM
hey ummm sooo what is this site about and all of you are very pretty froom shanel
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Angela 5-29-2008 @ 3:20PM
I would not want my kids having these kinds of products. However, I know that this is something a lot of college/university students might purchase. Since they are adults that is their right. I don't have a problem with that. As far as kids buying this stuff... Don't most parents buy their kids school supplies anyway? I doubt most parents would buy this stuff for their kids. I certainly wouldn't want my little girl having it if I had one.
As to the comment of Mary being only 13 years old that someone made earlier... Most people Christian or otherwise don't marry off their daughters at 13 and don't raise their children to have babies at 13. However in that part of the world at the time of Mary it was a very common thing for 13 year old girls to be married and have children at that age. An 18 year old girl at that time would either have already have been married or people would have thought something was wrong with here. You might want to look into actual history and traditions of the people in that region and of that time in order to understand that better.
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Mav Erick 5-30-2008 @ 11:06AM
In reply to Angela's pointless remarks. I am aware that people had sex younger in the middle east 2000+ years ago, due to the fact that people died younger. But that doesn't excuse a God who has the power to bless his woman with a long life, he had no reason to choose a 13 year old. We should ban glorifying the pregnancy of a 13 year old in a country where the age of consent is 16.
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Mav Erick 5-30-2008 @ 11:07AM
in reply to Angela... religion forces our children to act out the part of a 13 year old giving birth, in the nativity play each year at christmas. i find it totally hypocritical that a vicar as the cheek to spit and hiss about a bunny logo, when he preaches the oldest creature in the universe making a child pregnant... we should ban grooming children with religion in our schools.
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