Daimler/Chrysler and Unilever Sponsor Season Premiere of The Playboy Club
The Playboy Club debuted last night to dismal ratings – meaning the American people, by and large, agree that the Playboy brand does not belong in prime time, but some companies clearly still have not gotten the message.
Chrysler/Dodge and Unilever (which owns such brands as Hellmann’s Mayonnaise and P.F. Chang’s Home Menu) sponsored last night’s premiere episode.
Help us hold these companies accountable for their role in pushing the Playboy brand into every living room in America by taking action now.
And please, if this issue is important to you, forward this e-mail to your friends and associates who share your values and urge them to take action.
After months of denials from NBC that their new fall show “The Playboy Club” was in any way connected to or helping to promote the Playboy brand, the truth is out.
The latest issue of “Playboy” magazine to hit the stands features one of the show’s lead actresses on the cover and sells for a mere 60¢ - the price in 1960s when the series is set. The October issue also takes a retrospective looks at the Playboy clubs in the ‘60s and features a spread on the NBC series. Thanks in no small part to the publicity the brand will enjoy through the program, Playboy has announced plans to reopen its Chicago club next spring. Oh, and Hugh Heffner also provides voice-over narration for the first episode.
And today the show plugged “Tuesday Tweeting with Hef,” on its Twitter page, promising fans “Hef’s take on the premiere and life at the club in the ‘60s,” while urging fans to send questions to Heffner using the identifying hash tag “AskHef.”
…But as NBC has stated, the show and the Playboy brand are not at all connected.
Every single company that sponsored the premiere episode of The Playboy Club is complicit in the act of mainstreaming pornography. With Playboy spelled out blatantly in the show title, no advertiser can claim to be surprised.
And let us not lose sight of what the Playboy brand represents: It’s about promoting a narrow, and for most women, unattainable ideal of feminine beauty; it’s about reducing a woman to a set of measurements to the exclusion of everything else. It’s a brand that owns the Spice Digital Networks, purveyors of hardcore pornography. It’s a brand that seeks to lure young girls through pink, sparkly, bunny logo merchandise that is often shelved alongside Hello Kitty products.
PTC is contacting each advertiser to ask them to state for the record whether they plan to continue to underwrite this content with their advertising dollars. Unilever and Chrysler/Dodge dealerships need to hear directly from PTC members and other concerned citizens. There is no reason for any advertiser to associate its brand with a program that exploits and degrades women.
Each advertiser is helping to make adults-only material available in virtually every living room in the country. Even worse, this show is putting a sickening, glamorous sheen on an adult entertainment industry that destroys countless marriages and families. All brands appearing on future episodes of the show, regardless of how cheap the ad spots get, can rest assured they will hear from PTC about their decision to sponsor the program.
You can help us hold NBC and the program’s sponsors accountable by taking action now.
