US Playboy loses control over licensee magazine's content

April 26, 2000 - An April Fool's Day joke in the Romanian version of Playboy has angered the US-based Playboy Enterprises and may have uncovered the difficulties of controlling the content of affiliated or licensee magazines.

"How to Beat Your Wife.Without Leaving Marks on Her Body" appeared in the April issue of the Playboy-licensed Romanian magazine. The Playboy Enterprises International chairman and CEO, Christie Hefner, expressed her outrage. "This article flies in the face of Playboy's forty-six year history of strongly opposing any visual or editorial depiction of violence toward women."

Ms. Hefner stated that the editorial director of Playboy's international editions is on the way to speak personally to the Romanian staff.

It is not clear how much leeway international editors have in choosing content. Hefner called the Romanian title "a relatively new international edition for us" but did not elaborate how content so abhorrent to the licensor could show up in a magazine clearly titled Playboy.