Playboy South Africa, long the target of what editor Charl du Plessis calls the “mother grundies” who want it and its brazenly bold Playmates banished, has capitulated. For the first time since the magazine relaunched in South Africa in March last year, the cover doesn’t feature the body of a woman. Nor her breasts. Or her bottom. In fact, there’s only one part of her anatomy featured on the cover of the November issue.
“We have capitulated. The old ladies with the purple rinses and the wooden stakes have won. We have gone as conservative as we could, completely above the chin for our November cover,” says De Plessis.
“The idea behind cover is to make fun of SA’s misconceptions about Playboy and the prejudice we experience. Confronted with the cover while harbouring misconception or acting prejudicially, you will infer only one thing from this cover. If, however, one cares about first investigating things up close before jumping to ill-informed conclusions, you may see something else.”
“Ingenious,” said one person polled. “NOT my thing,” said another.
What do YOU think?