Playboy turns to Snapchat selfies after dropping nudity

Last year, Playboy announced it would ditch full nudity forever. That’s finally happened, and here’s the result.

The cover of Playboy’s first non-nude issue looks just like a Snapchat selfie.

The raunchy snap is overlaid with Snapchat’s familiar transparent bar, bearing the caption “heyyy ;)”. It’s basically Playboy saying: “Oi, millennials! Please buy us”.

What’s more, the model’s arm is positioned as if she was taking the photo of herself using a smartphone.

And the model herself is Sarah McDaniel, a model who rose to Instagram fame partly thanks to her eyes, which are both different colours.

It’s all part of Playboy’s continuing efforts to woo a younger audience.

“A year and a half ago, we relaunched Playboy.com as a safe-for-work site, and traffic skyrocketed 400%,” said Cory Jones, Playboy’s chief content officer, speaking to the New York Times, who first revealed the March issue.

Jones continued: “The average age of our visitors dropped from 47 years old to 30. It showed how the brand can still resonate.”

Playboy first announced it would stop including fully nude images in its magazine last October.

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Speaking at the time, CEO Scott Flanders blamed the internet for the decision.

“The battle has been fought and won,” Flanders said. “You’re now one click away from every sex imaginable for free. And so it’s just passé at this juncture.”

He added: “Don’t get me wrong; 12-year-old me is very disappointed in current me. But it’s the right thing to do.”

And regarding market competition, Flanders also noted that “the difference between us and Vice is that we’re going after the guy with a job”.

What do you think of Playboy’s new cover issue? Let us know in the comments.