The Parents Television Council is calling on members and concerned citizens to contact Unilever and Chrysler to hold them accountable for sponsoring the premiere of “The Playboy Club” on NBC. PTC’s ad department is reaching out to all other sponsors as well.
Unilever brands that were advertised during the show include Hellmann’s Mayonnaise and P.F. Chang’s Home Menu. Members are being asked to call, send letters and, in the case of Chrysler/Dodge, make personal visits to dealerships.
Prior to the premiere, PTC issued a preemptive letter to potential advertisers asking them not to support the glorification of the Playboy brand and the objectification of women.
“The ratings for ‘The Playboy Club’ speak for themselves. Clearly, Americans aren’t interested in tuning in to a show that amounts to little more than a chauvinistic advertisement for the Playboy brand. Advertisers should take a cue from viewers and find something else to support,” said PTC President Tim Winter. “Every single company that sponsored the premiere episode of ‘The Playboy Club’ is complicit in the act of mainstreaming pornography. With Playboy spelled out blatantly in the show title, no advertiser can claim to be surprised. Each advertiser is helping to make adults-only material available in virtually every living room in the country. Even worse, this show is putting a sickening, glamorous sheen on an adult entertainment industry that destroys countless marriages and families. All brands appearing on future episodes of the show, regardless of how cheap the ad spots get, can rest assured they will hear from PTC about their decision to sponsor the program.”
RBR-TVBR observation: The show airs at 10PM when most kids are in bed, or heading that way. If they’re still watching TV, it’s likely to be the Disney Channel or Animal Planet, not NBC. For those homes that are receiving over-the-air DTV, however, the choices are more limited and we can see some concern. However, the fact that there are no more Playboy Clubs in existence (except for one now in Vegas) and they never hit the level of a “strip club,” it seems a bit less likely to “destroy countless marriages and families.” Remember, the show is a drama (where plenty of infidelities are shown daily) based in the 60’s, not a porno, right?
