Playboy to try a 3-D centerfold
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CHICAGO -- Playboy "readers" who can only imagine what it would look like if a centerfold jumped right off the page are getting new specs to help them see into Hef's world.
The magazine's June edition hits newsstands Friday equipped with 3-D glasses. Now the toy that has kids dodging dragons, meatballs and tall blue aliens at the movies will help adults focus on what is, at first glance, a very blurry Playmate of the Year.
"What would people most like to see in 3-D?" asked Playboy founder Hugh Hefner. "Probably a naked lady."
"In today's print environment you have to create newsstand events," said the editorial director of the Chicago-based magazine, Jimmy Jellinek.
Playboy certainly must do something to get more people, especially younger people, to buy a magazine that has seen circulation plummet from 3.5 million in 2006 to 1.5 million today.
Mr. Jellinek said he hopes the issue featuring centerfold Hope Dworaczyk in 3-D also reminds people that for all the infatuation with the Internet, there is nothing quite like having a magazine in your hands.
3-D may be all the rage, but Mr. Hefner said he first thought of using it when he launched his magazine in the 1950s.
"I actually signed a photographer to shoot two nude women in 3-D in Chicago," he said. But he scrapped the idea when he discovered how expensive it would be to include the glasses.
This time around, HBO is helping out. HBO wanted a creative way to promote its show "True Blood," and having Playboy include 3-D glasses with the show's name on them seemed a good way to do it, said Playboy spokeswoman Theresa Hennessey.
So, do the glasses work? Well, it does kind of look like Ms. Dworaczyk is handing you the wine glass she's holding. And she says the photograph makes everything a little, well, bigger.
"It's kind of like it says on the rearview mirror," Ms. Dworaczyk joked. "Things may appear larger."
First Published May 12, 2010 12:00 am
