Spotlight pimps Playboy

Our supporters have alerted us to Spotlight’s latest catalogue. The crafts and fabric store is selling Playboy branded bed linen.

Spotlight joins Priceline, Adairs, Bras n Things, Diva and other retailers in promoting the global porn empire. They are complicit in the mainstreaming of pornography- an industry that degrades and abuses women.

Playboy founder Hugh Hefner with his paid ‘girlfriends.’

Playboy has employed a cunning marketing strategy to expand its brand. When magazine sales plummeted, Playboy began selling bunny-branded lingerie and other items. While the soft-porn magazine could only be sold in 21 countries, merchandise could be sold in 150 countries. Now one of the most recognizable logos in the Western world, the bunny is found on lingerie, energy drinks, toiletries, bedding, stationery, hot water bottles and dog beds.

Image from www.binthebunny.com

Playboy’s marketing strategy has been so successful that some claim the logo is “just a cute bunny.” (and therefore we shouldn’t object to it) We are expected to believe that Playboy branded products are somehow separate to Playboy’s core business of pornography. But Playboy merchandise promotes the brand that produces everything from pornographic magazines, reality tv programs documenting Hugh Hefner’s life with his paid “girlfriends,” (thus glamourising prostitution) and owns and operates hardcore porn websites and pornographic tv channels.

Playboy founder Hugh Hefner has said “I don’t care if a baby holds up a Playboy bunny rattle.” The reason why ‘Hef’ doesn’t care is because he knows that brand awareness from an early age creates future customers willing to buy into his porn empire. Retailers that stock Playboy branded products are helping ‘Hef’ to produce and distribute content that objectifies and degrades women.

So our question is, why is Spotlight, a company encouraging and providing for women’s creativity, promoting Playboy?

Take Action!

Tell Spotlight what you think, contact them here.

You might also like to leave a message on their Facebook page, calling on Spotlight to withdraw the range: www.facebook.com/spotlightstores