Playboy Versus Kink.com?
There’s a long and pedestrian business article here about the decline of the Playboy empire and the signs (faint though they are) that Hugh Hefner may finally, at age 83, be tired of maintaining his playboy image. But what struck me was the abject cluelessness of the last three paragraphs, two of which (after subtracting a paragraph of standard-story boilerplate filler) propose Kink.com’s Peter Acworth as the next “Mr. Playboy”:
But if Hefner sells up, who might take his place as Mr Playboy? The leading contender is Midlands-born Peter Acworth, a former Barings banker and founded of Kink.com, a suite of S&M and bondage-themed websites.
Acworth, 39, says he got the idea after he read in a British tabloid about a fireman who sold pornographic pictures on the internet. “He had made a quarter of a million pounds over a short period doing nothing very clever at all. So I basically just ripped off that idea.”
It’s a long way from bunny ears; Kink.com’s brand icon is a forked tail.
On the one hand, it’s illuminating that Kink.com should be considered one of the strongest brands in porn, that it could be compared to Playboy in any fashion. But this business writer — although clear on the meaning of the Playboy brand — has obviously failed to grasp the central branding connotations that have made Kink.com what it is today. Playboy has always had an iconic individual (Hefner) living it up with the models, with a wink and a nudge as to the propriety of same. (To be fair, Playboy’s photographers have a reputation for running clean and professional shoots.) But Kink.com is known for being holier than the Pope when it comes to professionalism and clean dealing with its models. It needs this reputation because of the edgy nature of its kinky material. Trying to cast Acworth in a Hefnerian role — something he’s shown no sign of wanting — would be an epic disaster for the brand.
It’s probably true that we’ll see Acworth, along with a rich cast of his dominant hirelings, being waited on hand and foot by naked slaves once the forthcoming reality-show site The Upper Floor (think Roissy meets Real World) goes live on the top floor of his San Francisco Armory castle of kink. But for Hefner-level striving-after-celebrity, he’d need to pull up at the Erotic Exotic Ball in a carriage pulled by a dozen prancing pony girls, and I don’t think we’ll see him going there.
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It pains me to say this, but I think Joe Francis of “Girls Gone Wild” would be the most appropriate Mr. Playboy. His brand of porn is extremely recognizable, he’s well-known for “living it up with the models” as you say, and he himself has more mainstream fame than other pornographers. As much as I enjoy Kink.com and other brands of porn, I wouldn’t know the directors or behind-the-scenes suits if I ran into them on the street.
I love seeing Stan Lee (the writer/creator of most of the Marvel mythos) because he still holds up well and I don’t know enough about his private life to be embarrassed by his behavior. Hef, who I think is about the same age, reminds me physically of my mother in law who passed on five years ago at 83. I envied his ‘castle’ and girlfriends back when I was a teenager but I can’t imagine a guy his age keeping time with three girls younger than my daughter with any sort of gusto. I just find it hard to imagine that he really wants/needs/can use that much pussy. Companionship and a sex partner, sure, but a harem at his age? I’m sure I feel some jealousy although I concede what else would he do with his money save pay a bunch of teen aged girls a grand a week to be in his exclusive stable. To quote the Wicked Witch of the West, “What a world”.
I don’t know whether to be terrified or delighted at the remote prospect of the kink.com crowd in that kind of mainstream light. On one hand it might be terrific to get Joe Six-Pack a little better acquainted with real bondage, but on the other hand if some do-gooder were to trace the lineage back to Insex there might be a political backlash that could be kink.com’s undoing. And I can’t help but think that extreme debauchery the like of which kink is famous for might be just a little less gratifying in a world where you can buy it off the magazine rack at the Barnes and Noble.
So far as I know, the only connection with Insex is that one of the Insex guys briefly directed Device Bondage, but doesn’t any more. And I’m not sure there’s much scandal to be attributed even to Insex — it was some harsh stuff, sure, but even the documentary filmmaker who went after them had to scrabble hard to find a few unprofessional anecdotes. Nothing that’s going to create a backlash that travels via faint association to a different company.
I find it hard to believe that the content of Hogtied, Device Bondage, Whipped Pussy or Sex and Submission are likely to go mainstream anytime soon. Interestingly, though, Ultimate Surrender wrestling matches are now available on my local cable systems porn section as “Catfights.” They’re wholesome looking stuff compared to other Kink.com products, however.