Playboy's Seductive, Convoluted Cell Phone Thing

What would you do for some free cell phone porn? Stand on one foot? Lick the pavement? Ha, Playboy is willing to work with you on this! Now, what would you do if it wasn't exactly porn, but a reality show webisode thing? You'd participate in a convoluted cell phone-based marketing scheme, wouldn't you. There's babes involved! More »

New Playboy show forces men to choose: cheap gadgets or free sex?

There's something awfully honest about Gadget or the Girl, Playboy TV's lightly geeky reality dating show. The premise is that a guy is offered the choice of a hot weekend date or a shiny man toy — "Sometimes it’s best to go for the sure thing" says the promo copy. Viewers get to peek into the televised courtship. There's no effort to geek up the girls, no concession to the notion that women have gear lust, too. No sex toys, even! It's pure dorm-room discourse: Dude, why even try to go out and get laid tonight when you can just stay home with your flatscreen TV? Sure, it sounds awful, but after running the numbers using figures from the sex industry as a proxy, we've found that the guys in the show have a pretty good idea of what romance is worth. More »

Newspapers have a fever, and the only cure is more Playboy

On Portfolio.com, Playboy CEO Christie Hefner, daughter of founder Hugh Hefner, spends a few hundred words patting herself on the back for breaking the story behind a Hollywood script and "Playboy's ability to grow its combined print and online audience and advertising." That, she seems to think, qualifies her to condescend to newspaper executives across America. Except "Playboy’s digital revenues have been flat or shrinking over the last few quarters, and the growth even before has been slower than industry average," according to PaidContent's Rafat Ali. (Photo by Getty/Jamie McCarthy)

Playboy offers Violet Blue a happy ending

Could it be our wish has come true? Will Playboy ditch their reluctant hot-blogger contestants and go straight to a photoshoot of professional bad girl Violet Blue? Let's see: Playboy gets their photo spread. Unwilling contestants get off the hook. Blue gets onto Playboy.com, which means she can complain about the mainstream media for weeks. Everybody wins! See the attached photo for proof that Violet is fully prepared. Are you? More »

Playboy contest morphs into Dutch auction

At least four of the nine women chosen by Playboy editors for their hottest blogger contest are actively playing to lose. None of them would let us run their emails from Playboy.com's editors, but there's a clear pattern: Playboy emailed blogstars like Xeni Jardin for a chaste headshot photo to go into an article about sexy bloggers. The emails didn't explain that (a) it was a poll, and (b) the point of the poll was to get the winner to pose "topless or nude" — no G-rated shoots — for the magazine's website. Only sex writer Violet Blue seems openly thrilled to be in the running. Here's an idea: Everyone vote for Violet. Spare the rest of us the awkwardness. [UPDATE: TechCrunch has one of the emails.]

Playboy wants top blogger to pose topless

The whole Xeni Jardin / Violet Blue thing continues to backfire on us. A female editor at Playboy.com alerted us to a "Who's the Web's hottest blogger"? contest they thought up after ogling last week's photos of the two cozied-up lady bloggers. The prize? Playboy will offer the winner a "topless or nude" photo shoot for their site. I fact-checked it with them, and let's be clear: Topless, nude, or forget it. The contestants are Jardin and Blue, plus Julie Alexandra, Veronica Belmont, Amanda Congdon, Brigitte Dale, Sarah Lacy, Sarah Austin and Natali Del Conte. I know what you're thinking: Good luck getting the winner to take it off. As a former Playboy reader (many of the articles are good) I wish they'd asked around first. It'd be easy to solicit nine very photogenic girlbloggers eager to claim the prize. Who'll be #1? Right now the obscure-but-well-shot Brigitte Dale is ahead, but I expect Veronica Belmont's Gadgetboy Army to mobilize today and sweep her to a decisive win — and a decisive NO. Sarah Austin sums up her cognitive dissonance: "Not sure how I feel about being in Playboy's popularity contest. Maybe I'd feel better if I was winning?"

Playboy manages to lose money online

Playboy lost $3.1 million in the first quarter as revenues dropped 8 percent to $78.5 million. Playboy EVP Bob Meyers blamed digital revenues, which fell 3 percent to $15.2 million. Silicon Alley Insider gasps that the declining digital revenues are "Not A Typo." But with free porn sites like RedTube and YouPorn, why would anyone pay Playboy's $19 per month subscription fees? Truth is, if Playboy wants to charge, it's going to have to find a niche like SuicideGirls has — and, is there a better word? — exploit it.

YouTube hosting Playboy's 55th Anniversary Playmate casting call

Hoary softcore porn peddler Playboy is asking women interested in being the Playmate of the Year to submit video auditions through YouTube. Of course, you're not allowed to disrobe on the popular video-sharing site, so according to the contest rules, no nudity is allowed — but two-piece swimsuits are encouraged. Four lucky ladies will get plane tickets to Hollywood were they will be photographed au naturel, visit the Playboy mansion and presumably have a chance to be fondled by Viagra-fueled nonagenarian Hugh Hefner. All the entrants sign over rights to their videos to Playboy. "Cyber Girl" Dana Dicillo demonstrates exactly how wannabes should "highlight their assets" after the jump. More »

Playboy wants coeds to "commune" on the Web

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Playboy launches a college-only network

PlayboyU is stealing a page from Facebook — Facebook circa 2004, that is — and launching a college-only social network, restricted to people with ".edu" addresses. With help from Ning, it's starting PlayboyU — but not, sadly enough, delivering the goods in the form of nude coed shots. No matter. The college-only restriction limits the potential audience. And why would college kids, when Facebook and MySpace exist, bother to sign up for this website? The association with a porn brand alone should be enough to scare most students off. One thing Playboy forgot: ".edu" addresses include professors and alumni, who might take an interest in students' extracurricular activities on the site. We're placing the site on immediate deathwatch.

Loose wires: Bill Gates and the Playboy bunnies

• Recognizing Paris Hilton's contributions to the field of phone hacking, famed hacker group Cult of the Dead Cow named the starlet as an honorary member of its Ninja Strike Force. [Ninja Strike Force]
• Cisco and IBM win a deal to coat Silicon Valley in a rich buttery layer of wi-fi. [CIO Tech Informer]
• A Connecticut startup named Vivapop launches a for-pay web calendar that only lists certain events. The company targets busy professionals, because busy professionals really need another event calendar that has to synch with Outlook, Google Calendar, iCal, Yahoo Calendar, and their phones. [Vivapop]
• It's like a Blogebrity that really means it: Blogger and Podcaster Magazine. [Blogger and Podcaster via Bb Gun]
• Bill Gates's other company, Corbis, licenses the photo collection of Playboy. The companies will celebrate the deal at what promises to be an awkward and confusing party for Bill. [USA Today]

Remainders: Seriously we're writing about the Playboy party

• Don't worry, Valleywag's sending a correspondent to Playboy's Women of MySpace party. (Don't you wish you were a correspondent?) [One Industry Group]
• Well look who's Mister Celebrity Vlogger! The man who just interviewed famous blogger Om Malik now interviews famous podcast publisher John Furrier. (Connection: Both took VC money for content-based enterprises in competitive markets. Rodrigo.Typepad.com]
• Somehow, Yahoo CEO Terry Semel as the face of technology is not reassuring in the least. [Forbes]
• Web 2.0 snark blog Supr.c.ilio.us's (Supr.c.ilio.us'?) post about Michael Arrington leaving TechCrunch becomes quirkily prescient when Arrington farms out a whole day's posts to writer Marshall Kirkpatrick. [Supr.c.ilio.us and TechCrunch]
• Why aren't all industry explanations in cartoon form like this explanation of the IT process? [Scaryideas.com]