LOS ANGELES (September 16, 2011) – The Parents Television Council® condemned Comcast/NBC Universal for blatant doublespeak after it was announced the fall premiere of “The Playboy Club” would be directly tied to Playboy magazine.  

Initially, executive producer Ian Biederman went to great lengths to assure critics the show is “not based on the magazine, it’s based on The Playboy Club in 1961. It’s entirely different.” This week, Playboy magazine announced the October issue, which hit newsstands today, features NBC “Playboy Club” star Laura Benanti on the cover and cross-promotes the program. Just in time for the September 19 premiere of the show, Hugh Hefner piled on by dropping the cost of the magazine to 60 cents.
 

“NBC fooled no one but themselves when they asserted that ‘The Playboy Club’ was unrelated to the porn industry and Hugh Hefner’s Playboy magazine. The network’s hypocrisy was most recently exposed this week when we found out Playboy magazine would help promote ‘The Playboy Club’ and would even feature one of the actresses on the cover. This follows earlier reports that performers were required to sign nudity waivers,” said PTC president Tim Winter.

“The program is inseparable from the Playboy brand. Hugh Hefner is the narrator of the pilot episode. He has timed the magazine price reduction to coincide with the broadcast. And he is opening an actual Playboy Club, bunnies and all, in Chicago, just like the TV show. Clearly, Hefner is looking to the broadcast television program for the millions of dollars in free publicity he will receive, complements of the publicly-owned airwaves.
 

“Those involved with the production and distribution of this program who have claimed it is about ‘empowering women’ need a reality check. This is about female sexualization, not female empowerment.