Playboy: Gutter

Credits & Description:

Advertiser: PLAYBOY SOUTH AFRICA
Agency: Y&R SOUTH AFRICA
Category: Publications & Media
Advertising campaign: GUTTER
Art Director: Ismaeel Chetty
Illustrator: Rowan Foxcroft
Executive Creative Director: Rui Alves
Copywriter: Werner Marais
Chief Creative Officer: Graham Lang (Y & R South Africa)

Implementation
After 60 years of delighting its loyal readers, Playboy Magazine bravely sabotaged their own publication by running three centerfolds with "printing errors" that caused the naughty bits to be hidden in the gutter. In each centerfold, the phrase, “THIS WOULDN’T HAPPEN ONLINE.” enticed readers to scan the Playboy QR Code and go online to enjoy the full picture in all its glory. With one touch of a button users could access the Playboy website to receive a FREE three-month online subscription and get a taste of the same content they enjoyed in print, only now in a digital format.

Execution
By having the brevity to laugh at itself, Playboy not only won the trust of its magazine readers, but convinced them to explore the same Playboy content in a different and arguably superior medium. Realigning its audience with its online content is part of Playboy's future growth strategy in the South African market.

Outcome
73% of Playboy Magazine readers who interacted with the campaign took advantage of the free online subscription offer - proving that there’s more to Playboy than Playboy Magazine28 words

Client Brief Or Objective
Playboy South Africa wanted to migrate existing readers from the old-school printed magazine to their super-glossy online site in order to increase online subscriptions. We wanted to demonstrate the benefits that Playboy offered online, so we decided to highlight one of the possible drawbacks of the printed medium - the dreaded printing error.