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Saturday, September 17, 2005

Playboy.com is looking for the Gap's sexiest sweater sweeties to pose for its upcoming "Girls of the Gap" online, to be launched in time for the holiday shopping season.

The online publication of the adult men's magazine has run similar pictorials that aim to "uncover" corporate employees, with spreads that have included the "Women of Home Depot" "Women of Wal-Mart" and "Women of McDonald's"

Those specials were the three biggest money-generating features for playboy.com, a company spokeswoman said.

"(Women of Wal-Mart) was a real watershed moment for Playboy.com in terms of the number of people who actually paid money to get access to the pay-per-view part of the feature," John Thomas, editor of Playboy.com, told CNN/Money in a previous interview.

The spreads are directly responsible for thousands of new memberships to the Playboy Cyberclub, where the pictorials are housed online, just to gain access to the Home Depot, Wal-Mart and McDonald's articles, said the spokeswoman.

She added that those three specials alone have generated hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue, and translated into over 10,000 DVD sales.

As with previous playboy.com pictorials, the Gap special will be available only online and showcase the retailer's "sexiest" female employees.

The adult men's publication ran similar "Women of Enron" and "Women of Starbucks" photo spreads in Playboy magazine in 2002 and 2003.

Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, criticized the Playboy spread that featured its employees in November 2004, saying the project went against its image as a family store.

Playboy.com pays models for features but does not disclose the amount.

Any woman 18 or older who is a part- or full-time employee at the Gap can apply by submitting a head shot, a full-body shot and a recent pay stub by mail to Playboy by October 7, 2005.

Add comment | Source | Posted by: Harry2000