For Playboy, which has seen its circulation slip from 3.15 million to 2.6 million since 2006, putting Marge on the cover was designed to attract younger [image-nocss] readers to a magazine where the median age of readers is 35, while not alienating older readers. "We knew that this would really appeal to the 20-something crowd," Playboy Enterprises spokesperson Theresa Hennessey told AP.
The magazine also hopes to turn the November issue into a collectors' item by featuring Marge, sitting on a chair in the pose of the iconic Playboy bunny, on the cover of only the magazines sold in newsstands. Subscribers receive a more traditional model on the cover. "It's so rare in today's digital age where you have the opportunity to send people to the newsstand to pick something up," editorial director James Jellinek told the news agency.
But the American Family Association (AFA) has called on 7-Eleven stores to reconsider their decision to sell the November issue of Playboy. "Most American dads know the dangers that porn represents to young males. It's irresponsible of 7-Eleven to display porn in front of boys who pop into 7-Elevens for a hot dog or a Slurpee," said Randy Sharp, AFA special projects director, in a media statement.
Monica Cole, director of AFA's OneMillionMoms.com, finds 7-Eleven's decision "deeply offensive," said the statement. "Marge Simpson on the cover of Playboy is disturbing on so many levels," she said. "7-Eleven has to know that using an animated character on the cover of a pornographic magazine is deceptive and harmful because it will attract the attention of children. It's inexcusable for a company that wants to be a responsible member of American society to use a cartoon character to hawk pornography. America's moms didn't like Joe Camel selling cigarettes to their kids, and they don't want Marge Simpson selling degrading images of women either."
She added, "A lot of moms are going to shop somewhere else if 7-Eleven doesn't do the right thing and refuse to stock this magazine." The AFA, a nonprofit organization based in Tupelo, Miss., claims 2.5 million online supporters, said its website.
7-Eleven spokesperson Margaret Chabris said the company has no plans to carry Playboy on a regular basis. "It is not a recommended item for company stores," she told The Patriot News, adding that franchise stores are independent contractors and some carry Playboy. "We thought the Simpson issue would make nice collectibles. We're not requiring the stores take it."
She said that the magazines are being shipped in plastic wrappers so underage customers cannot peek inside.
"A cartoon is going to be appealing to a child. Playboy and 7-Eleven and Fox are allowing that to happen," Sharp said. "The cover will create the kind of curiosity that can easily lead [boys] into an addictive porn habit. This is not what American families want to see in their neighborhood convenience store."
Scott Hartman, CEO of the York, Pa.-based Rutter's convenience chain, chuckled over a controversy he does not have to face. "We don't sell Playboy, so it's not an issue with us," he told the paper.
As for 7-Eleven, Chabris told AP, "We love Marge."
And the retailer's love of the Simpsons has a precedent. In July 2007, the company "rebranded" a dozen stores to the fictional Kwik-E-Mart c-store brand in a cross-promotional tie-in with the debut of Twentieth Century Fox's The Simpsons Movie. Other U.S. and Canadian 7-Eleven stores joined in by also offering such Simpsons products as KrustyO's cereal, Buzz Cola, Squishee (Slurpee) frozen drinks and Sprinklicious donuts. (Click here for full previous CSP Daily News coverage.)
The private company did not release detailed sales figures, but it gave ABC News a summary of some of its Simpsons-related sales. The stores sold more than 1.1 million Squishees, 960,000 cans of Buzz Cola and 880,400 Sprinklicious donuts; in total, the chain has sold more than 3.4 million units of Simpsons merchandise and generated 64.3 million clicks on its website, a report said soon after the promotion was completed.
The promotion garnered 7-Eleven Inc. and its FreshWorks, an Omnicom agency marketing and advertising consortium, the Best Overall Pro Award for the 2007 "Simpsons Movie Kwik-E-Mart Experience" at PROMO magazine's PRO Awards event recognizing outstanding promotion marketing campaigns. (Click here for coverage.)
FreshWorks also took two out of three Gold Lion awards for the campaign presented to U.S. companies at the 55th Cannes International Advertising festival. (Click here for coverage.)
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