I'm boycotting WH Smith............

[Itsthawooluff]

following the piece on Woman's Hour on Radio 4, until they get rid of the Playboy range of children's / teenagers stationery.

I'm not anti porn per se, but I am tired of every female between the ages of 5 and 55 being expected to look like,dress like and act like a 16 year old nymphette who is permanently "up for it".

And I reckon Heffner has made enough money from the world's w~~k~~s without having to put his sleazy brand to pencil cases ffs.

so it looks cute, right? pink bunnies on pencil cases, school stuff. It is an insidious and subtle aproach. Whose idea was it at Wh smith to do somthing like this i wonder. worth boycotting definitely.

I agree Ruty,it is insidious, and (wearing my conspiracy theory hat) maybe it is intended to soften the image of the brand. So I see Playboy bunny and think "porn, women dressed in bunny suits serving drinks to overweight businessmen etc etc," my daughter sees Playboy Bunny and thinks "Cool, popular, fun".

Itsthewoolaf I think you are definitely right about this sort of thing "softening" the brand and working towards a long term business strategy of making it mainstream, like Anne Summers. Of course that's what this is about - bringing up a generation of consumers for whom the brand is as familiar as Disney and doesn't have any of the nasty overtones of the porn industry which has made it rich. But also being an acceptable gateway into porn, the way Anne Summers is.

yep but you dont get ann summers pencil cases do you? that i would find repulsive although ann summers does not make me think of porn (more giggly girlie evenings). a friend told me recently that she had decorated her young teenage girls bedroom with the playboy logo and i actually shuddered. she thought it looked lovely, i cringed. playboy, what does it say to me? an image of young girls with perma tan, tarting around after old men with money, flashing their bits. not an image i would be keen to project to my dd..although at 2 luckily i dont think its going to happen!