The Inner-City Girls of Wal-Mart

Connections are often surprising and usually interesting -- once you know the whole story.

OK, here's the deal.  Black Men was launched in 1998 and billed as the first urban men's lifestyle magazine.  It included a suave, upscale fantasy of life in the inner city, hip-hop music reviews, mens fashion spreads and layouts of bikini-clad women.  Black Men introduced a new sort of "girl-next-door" -- an exotic multiracial model with all the glamor of the Hollywood of the past.

Now hold that thought and let's consider the hip-hop music and fashion market.

The timing for Black Men could not have been better -- and the decision to avoid nudity could not have been wiser.

The previously urban-only market for hip-hop clothes and music was rapidly moving out into small town America to white males.  What better location to find that market than America's largest retailer, Wal-Mart.  Everybody goes to Wal-Mart, especially in small towns.  With no nudity, this magazine and the others it inspired (King, Smooth, XXL, F.E.D.S.,and Show) all could be found on the shelves of Wal-Mart.

But would this new target market accept the bigger booties that appealed to African-American men?

And the answer was a resounding "YES!"

The 5'7" coffee-brown beauty (34-27-45) from Athens, GA was an instant success and set the bar for urban glamor girls.  Yes, "Buffie the Body" is included in the more than sixty models in Huang's book.