BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — Playboy is making its magazine great again.
Nude shots have made a comeback with Playboy's March/April 2017 issue featuring topless Playmate Elizabeth Elam as Miss March 2017, along with the headline “Naked Is Normal.”
The 63-year-old men’s magazine is bringing back nudes one year after banning naked photos in an effort to boost circulation and attract more mainstream advertisers. That novel effort apparently failed.
“I’ll be the first to admit the way in which the magazine portrayed nudity was dated, but removing it entirely was a mistake,” Cooper Hefner tweeted Monday. “Nudity was never the problem, because nudity isn’t a problem. Today, we’re taking our identity back and rediscovering who we are.”
Hefner is the son of Playboy founder Hugh Hefner and an outspoken critic of the move to ban nudes. He was installed as Playboy's chief creative officer this past October.
Traverse, the investment company that took over majority control in 2011, had been trying to sell the company or attract new investors. But those efforts apparently haven’t amounted to a bona fide offer.