Showing posts with label marge simpson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label marge simpson. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Hugh Hefner -- Marge Simpson Cover Gets Most Media Attention "in Memory"

The hullabaloo over cartoon character Marge Simpson's upcoming Playboy magazine cover and pictorial inside has not abated. Pretty much every media outlet is reporting it, which makes it a very smart publicity move (and hey, that's what covers are supposed to do: Drive publicity and buyer curiosity). It even supported two top-ten "trending topics" on Twitter one day.


Now Playboy founder and editor Hugh Hefner has acknowledged via Twitter that the move has generated tremendous publicity.

Hefner (Twitter name: hughhefner) tweets: "Marge Simpson's cover & pictorial are generating more media attention than any celebrity in memory." Still, not all of that info has been correct; he adds in a later tweet: "The Marge Simpson pictorial in the November issue is 5 page not 3, as reported elsewhere, including a gatefold & data sheet." What? No Homer Party Jokes? Alas ...

Friday, October 9, 2009

Marge Simpson Beats Levi Johnson to the Press, Gets Playboy November Cover


Playboy has released images of the cover of its November issue, which is a split-run with two different covers. The one that's getting all of the attention, though, is the one featuring cartoon character Marge Simpson.

Reminds me of when I was an editor in New York at Internet World magazine at the beginning of this decade. Dilbert creator Scott Adams visited the offices (during the course of a media tour for some internet project with which he was involved), chatted with some of the staff, and signed our signature wall -- and he included a small drawing on the wall of one of his characters. There was some talk after that meeting of hiring him to draw a Dilbert cover for Internet World. The price wasn't too high, but the idea foundered for one of two reasons (I don't remember which): Either he wasn't interested in any of the story ideas forwarded his way, or he was too busy.

I would have liked to see the Dilbert cover come to be, but it didn't. So I can figure the Playboy editors are deservedly happy with their coup. Congrats to them. An issue that features a Tracy Morgan interview, Farrah Fawcett tribute, and a Stephen King story doesn't need Marge to help sell it, but I bet this will boost newsstand sales.

Best of all, they beat Levi Johnson and his Playgirl photoshoot to market.