Playboy Expands into the Muslim world

Playboy recently joined the ranks of FHM, Maxim and British men’s magazines in the contest for readers in Indonesia. To better prepare the publication for sells in such a different culture then the one in which it was created certain controversial decisions were made. One of which was the removal of nudity from the magazine. This does not guarantee that issues of Playboy might not be seized by the police, but given the availability of the previously mentioned competitors it would seem a tad hypocritical.

Nonetheless, there has been a good deal of uproar from both sides of the argument. As expected, radical Muslims in the country are quite angry at the corrupting effect that they believe Playboy will have on their culture. Interestingly enough, there are also a number of complaints coming from the first purchasers of the magazine in its new condition. They feel cheated at having bought a playboy without any nude photographs. In this sense, by removing actual nudity Playboy has transformed itself from a superior product in comparison to Maxim and FHM, to one that is a perfect substitute with nothing other then the name to go by. And name brand recognition may only take them so far.