Off-Vespa: Playboy finally hits Manila!

I’m excited to see the maiden issue of Philippine Edition of Playboy magazine. I heard the title will be launched on Wednesday (April 2) in Hotel Sofitel with two International Playmates as special guests. hmmm…

You see, I was never a big fan of FHM or Maxim. I only get to read an issue (okay, I just browse over the pages) whenever I’m in the barbershop. But Playboy is a different matter. For me, it’s nostalgia! It brings back boyhood memories much as owning that much-coveted 12-inch Voltes V mecha-robot. It taught us how to distinguish a cool tito from the boring ones by being chums with the uncle who let us peek at the loose and tattered pages of his back issues tucked under his beds. It opened our eyes that ‘playmates’ weren’t necessarily those we play bahay-bahayan with. It made us aware who Tetchie Agbayani was and permanently ingrained in our minds that little white headband she was wearing in those pictures.

Just recently, while listening to that 80s track “Angel in a Centerfold,” my eight-year old daughter asked me what centerfold means. Why, when I was her age, I already knew what that meant! I patiently explained to her what it is and added that there are magazines where being a centerfold was way cooler than landing on a magazine cover itself. Of course, I had a specific title in mind but there was no need to go on further.

One of my favorite part in Playboy (at least, in the US Edition) is that little “where’s the Playboy bunny?” game they try to put on the covers. I had fun looking for those as much as the times I’ve spent on “I Spy,” “Where’s Waldo?” or with Larry Alcala’s ‘Slice of Life’ cartoons. All my high school buddies didn’t even know there’s such a thing and started to see Playboy covers in a whole new different light. I bet some of you don’t even know that ever existed until now. I hope they’d get to insert that little detail in the local edition and bring out that little boy in me.

I’ve read that there won’t be any frontal nudity in the Philippine edition so as not to offend the sensibilities of the Catholic conservatives in the country (maybe a nip peep, says Beting Laygo Dolor, the mag’s chief editor in a recent interview). Still, I’m hoping that the title would be true to it’s promise and set itself apart from the existing “laddie” [little boy] magazines (Dolor says that’s what FHM & Maxim are called abroad).

I’m personally impressed that the editors actually owned up calling their mag a dad’s magazine. The ‘old dad’ tag has been a liability to the title with it’s declining circulation internationally overtaken by it’s “laddie” counterparts. It’s been observed that Playboy has become obsolete also largely because the internet abounds of more daring photos (and videos!) that are available for free. The poor sales even promted Playboy Australia to closed shop in 2000. Indeed, the prospects don’t look good for Playboy coming this late in the country. Still, I have high hopes for the title and I hope it doesn’t dissapoint.

Below is a Q&A conducted by ABS-CBN’s Ginger Conejero with Beting Dolor — editor-in-chief of Philippine Edition of Playboy Magazine (Philippine Edition). If he plays the cards right, the guy will be holding one the most admired jobs.

Q: What kind of journey was it like to bring Playboy to the Philippines?

A: It was very difficult, honestly. It began a little more than a year ago. There were already talks between other people. A foreigner based in Manila tried to get a franchise, so he got an editor who is a little bit known in the industry. And they were working on getting Playboy, but it did not push through. There were other attempts until finally, late last year, a young Filipino businessman was given the franchise. He, in turn, has started looking for an editorial team and my name came up. We talked and we went to Singapore, met with Americans from Playboy International. They liked the ideas I was proposing and here I am.

Q: This is the 25th international franchise, why did it take so long for the Philippines to sign for this?

A: I don’t know really. As far as back as 10, 11 years ago, I already heard that some local businessmen wanted to get the Playboy franchise. I know of at least one other businessman who applied for a franchise with a competitor of Playboy, Penthouse. That didn’t push through because it was too expensive at that time. But then Playboy is a winner worldwide so it would be hard to fail.

Q: What can people expect from Playboy Philippines? Can they expect the same things that Playboy is famous for internationally?

A: That depends what part of the world. It will not be like the US edition. There will be a lot of similarities. We will have women, of course, I think that’s what people consider when they think of Playboy, you have women. It will not be as bold as the US edition but it will not be as tame as the Indonesian edition.

Q: How does it set itself apart from the men’s magazines that are already existing in the market?

A: We have a different demographic. The local men’s magazines that you’re talking about – FHM, Maxim, and the others – target a younger crowd. They are called laddie magazines abroad . We are a daddy magazine. Our market is really guys 30 and above. More mature.

Q: It says it will be 70 percent local and 30 percent US content. So how will you choose your cover girls? Will the people who will be posing for the pictorial cater to daddy?

A: Playboy has a formula, which is a little bit different from other magazines here. For example, we don’t really use too many celebrities. If you look at Playboy US edition, the covers, for the past two years, celebrities are pretty rare. The centerfold, which is really the centerfold of the magazine, are mostly unknowns. Playboy likes to discover.

Q: So will that be riskier than the other magazines?

A: Not really. I’d say about the same.

Q: It is said the guys read Playboy for the articles. It was mentioned in the paper today you have Palanca award winners writing for the magazine.

A: I have four. I’m supposed to have five but the fifth one missed the deadline.

Q: What’s so great about these articles?

A: It’s supposed to be a good read. People say they read it for the articles. That means we should have really good articles, which means we should have the best writers. That’s true for Playboy USA and I think it’s true for Playboy Philippines. I was able to get the likes of Krip Yuson, Butch Dalisay and some friends like Mike Marasigan, I think, from BusinessWorld.

Q: What are the topics that they will be writing about?

A: If you’re aware of Playboy USA, we have the usual. We have the 20 questions. With this edition I can say, we will have Chiz Escudero. He’s the guy people are interested in. We have three pictorials in every issue. You read part of it and then you look at the pictures.

But we have fiction, which the other men’s magazines don’t have. I have Sarge Lacuesta, who is one of the Palanca awardees, submitting the first short story for the first edition. And that’s gonna be a regular part of Playboy. We will have fiction all the time. We will have essays. There are just two columnists and Krip Yuson is one of them. The other one is…Sarah Lara I think her name is, also a Palanca awardee. There are feature articles. We have hard features and we have soft features. The hard feature is about a tribe in southern Mindanao. They are considered the fiercest Filipino tribe.

Q: You do cover a wide range of topics not necessarily those that maybe someone will think, ‘OK, it’s Playboy it has to deal with certain topics?’

A: It has to be a surprise. Every issue has to be something that the readers look forward to because they are not too sure what’s coming up.

Q: Tell us about the launch. It sounds like a big event. You’re gonna have a Playmate of the month and as well as the Playboy international executives.

A: We were supposed to have two executives. One confirmed and I think he should be here in a day or two. The other one, I’m not too sure if he’s arriving. We will have a former centerfold, she’s a Filipino-American, very recent. I think 2005. She’s one of our special guests. Our cover girl will also be one of our special guests.

Q: Can we have hints on who the cover girl is?

A: We’ve seen her face on the billboards of EDSA.

Q: What is the misconception that maybe you want to change about men’s magazines? Some feminists might think there is a degrading undertone to it?

A: We don’t agree with that. It’s not degrading. It’s like saying the classic works of art which are nude are also degrading. Is the Oblation a work of art or is it a smut? That’s a male form. Same thing with the female form. Amorsolo had some classic nudes. I don’t think that’s degrading. It’s women at their peak showing off their form. And what we feel they are offering to our readers, they are saying, “I’m willing to share with you something, myself at my peak.”

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So who’s in the centerfold?

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J0HNRANA

john[dot]rana[at]gmail[dot]com