• by Amy Corr , Staff Writer @MediaPostOTL, October 30, 2006

Rifle through the last few issues of Playboy, and you'll find a wealth of distinctive ads. Talk about letting loose. The agencies are clearly enjoying the spots' singular media placement.

The first appeared in, or should I say on the backside, of the September issue. The back cover was a rear-view image of the cover that featured Hef's three girlfriends promoting the latest season of "The Girls Next Door." The backward cover was an ad for Volkswagen, which recently resurrected the Rabbit. In real life, Hef's main squeeze Holly sports a Playboy bunny logo tattoo on the small of her back; for the back cover, the tattoo was digitally changed into a tattoo of an actual rabbit, (the animal, not the car), courtesy of Crispin Porter + Bogusky, the agency behind the creative and media execution.

Lou Mohn, publisher of Playboy, said it was "inevitable" for Playboy and Volkswagen to collaborate once the Rabbit was relaunched.

Fast-forward to November--and if you flip too fast, you might miss the ad. Unlike the showy September back cover, an ad for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority was placed inside editorial copy and disguised as comics.

The first comic showed a man reading Playboy and confidently telling the woman sitting next to him that he reads the magazine for the articles. Playing off the oft-used stereotype, the next comic features the woman responding with "I go to Vegas for the shows." The ad is part of the long-running "What happens here, stays here" campaign created by R&R Partners. A boon for the agency: the tagline was referenced on the cover, since the issue featured editorial on Vegas.

"Advertisers are asking magazines to be creative with them and bring to life marketing messages within editorial aspects of the magazine," said Mohn.

December's issue will feature an ad for Maker's Mark bourbon using Granny, a Playboy cartoon character, in a holiday-themed cartoon/ad.

"The RFPs we're receiving have a multimedia, integrated component to them," said Mohn. "Marketers are recognizing the power of the Playboy brand."