BOYCOTTS: Trying to Silence Sassy

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Sassy magazine may not have Playboy-style naughty photos, but the bold, breezy teen monthly prints plenty of material suggestive enough to draw the wrath of the Rev. Jerry Falwell's Moral Majority. Under the direction of Editor Jane Pratt, 25, Sassy has published such articles as "The Truth About Boys' ; Bodies" and "How to Kiss." That is too much for the Moral Majority, which in the mid-1980s helped persuade a few retailers, including 7-Eleven stores, to stop selling Playboy and other skin mags. In its Liberty Report newspaper, the Moral Majority urges readers to write to Sassy's advertisers and demand that the firms boycott the magazine.

The campaign may be having an impact. After placing ads in the magazine since its inception, Noxell (Cover Girl Cosmetics) and Schering-Plough (Maybelline) have suspended advertising. The companies, though, insist that they are not responding to pressure from the Moral Majority.

Sassy's strong readership (circ. 500,000 after only seven issues) probably guarantees that it will survive the Fundamentalist fire. Sandra Yates, president of Matilda Publications, the New York City company that publishes Sassy, says new advertising contracts have "virtually replaced" the revenue lost from dropped accounts. In any case, the editorial content of Sassy will evolve. November's issue will contain the article "Virgins Are Cool."