After a year of keeping its magazine models clad, Playboy has decided au naturel is the way to go, after all.
The magazine announced on Monday nude women will grace its pages once again. The March/April issue cover boasts the appropriate headline, "Naked is normal."
Chief creative officer Cooper Hefner said on Twitter the way the magazine previously featured nude models was "dated," but he believed getting rid of all nudity was not the right choice.
"Nudity was never the problem because nudity isn't a problem," Hefner, who is the son of founder Hugh Hefner, posted on Twitter. "Today we're taking our identity back and reclaiming who we are."
Playboy previously told CNBC
it adopted the non-nude policy to get more mainstream readers and advertisers. In May 2015, the company launched a
safe-for-work app. Less than a year later, the magazine did away with naked women. The first issue in the new format was March 2016, which hit 1,200 more newsstands and had a 55.5 percent increase in advertising compared to the issue from the year before.
Brunette beauty Elizabeth Elam has been tapped to cover Playboy‘s new March 2017 issue. Elam was born in Dallas, Texas and raised in the small town of Norman, Oklahoma, but since she was 18, the 25-year-old adventurer has been on the go, moving from Norman to Miami to Europe and now LA.“I was originally just going to be here for three months and then never left,” she says when speaking on her time in Los Angeles. Next up, though, Elam wants to explore Asia. “It’d be amazing to see how life is there. I watch Anthony Bourdain and that’s like the extent of Asia I know.”In addition to the feature on Elizabeth, Playboy‘s March 2017 issue further captures the creativity of the brand’s new chief creative officer, Cooper Hefner.“This is a remarkably special moment personally and professionally that I get to share this issue of Playboy magazine with my Dad, as well as with readers,” said Cooper. “It is a reflection of how the brand can best connect with my generation and generations to come.”March’s installment in turn welcomes the return of some familiar franchises, including Cooper Hefner’s updated take on The Playboy Philosophy that was penned nearly 40 years after his father’s last edition in the 1960’s, which converses about the current political and cultural climate in the U.S.; “Party Jokes,” providing a quick touch of humor and celebration of the playful side of the brand; as well as the debut of the “Heritage” section which shares the magazine’s past point of view that is more relevant today than ever before.You can download Playboy‘s new March issue today, as it will then land on newsstands on February 28.