Morality in Media Calls on Top NBC Sponsors to Stop The Playboy Club

Group warns of consequences for support of sexually exploitive show

WASHINGTON, Aug. 10, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NBC's top advertisers will receive a letter this week from Morality in Media asking that they use their influence to stop NBC from airing The Playboy Club this fall and warning them not to advertise on the show if it airs.  

"We will expect advertisers to steer clear of the promotion of the Playboy lifestyle and pornography," said Dawn Hawkins, executive director of Morality in Media. "On a recent media tour, the show's producers stated--with a straight face--that The Playboy Club is all about 'female empowerment,'" she noted.  "Sexual exploitation of women is not empowering," she added.

"For nearly decades, Playboy has been the top pornographer in the world.  Pornography has caused the addiction of many adults and even children, has led to increased domestic violence, and the treatment of women and children as mere sex objects to be used, abused, and discarded, just like Hugh Hefner's girlfriends," Hawkins said.

"Today – with NBC's use of the public airwaves – Playboy is poised to cause even more harm, this time bringing its pornographic worldview directly into America's living rooms," said Patrick A. Trueman, President of Morality in Media. "We don't need NBC to pour more fuel to that fire."  

Playboy, once equated with 'soft-core' pornography, distributes hardcore pornography on pay TV channels and the Internet. The company also has just partnered with the largest distributor of hard-core porn on the Internet.

Distribution of hardcore pornography can be prosecuted under federal and state obscenity laws, according to Trueman, a former chief of the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, D.C.

Hawkins is encouraging citizens to sign the pledge at www.CloseTheClubOnNBC.com to make it unprofitable for NBC to exploit women and to contact their local affiliate and ask that the show not be aired. The letter sent to advertisers is also available on the site.

About Morality in Media

Morality in Media, Inc. is the leading national organization focused on opposing obscenity and indecency through public education and the application of the law. For more information visit www.waronillegalpornography.com, www.moralityinmedia.org and www.pornharms.com.

Morality in Media
Washington, DC  - 202-393-7245

Media Contact:
Lesley Bateman
813-849-0076 x106
[email protected]

SOURCE Morality in Media