PLAYBOY: Your Father's Oldsmobile?

[Dan Stiffler]

On 2/3/03 4:28 PM, "Mark Tomlonson" <tomlonson@wmich.edu> wrote:

> The biggest problem facing Playboy today is a large portion of its
> target audience can truthfully say "Playboy? Yeah, my Grandfather used
> to read that." It's not too far from the problem a division of GM faced
> and was not able to beat. Playboy still seems in large measure to be
> your father's Oldsmobile.

I have been waiting for an opportunity to do a spin with the car metaphor.
A perception exists that today's generation wants nothing to do with "your
father's Oldsmobile."  GM decided to kill the brand on that perception.

But let me offer three cars that today's generation is mad for and then
let's think about that phrase "your father's": The "new" VW Beetle, the PT
Cruiser, and the BMW Mini.

A high percentage of buyers for these three "retro" cars fits the target
demographic for PLAYBOY.  The PT Cruiser has been especially successful with
this age group.  Indeed, the car was designed by a guy who is in his late
twenties and he was thinking exactly about his father's, or his
grandfathers', cool cars.

Let me ask you this: if Oldsmobile had decided to release a new 442, do you
think young buyers would be so worried that it had been their dads' car?
Think Mustang.  Have you seen the photos of the new model due this year?

So, if PLAYBOY is "in large measure...your father's Oldsmobile," then the
relevant question is "Can someone get with the program and release a 442?"

btw, I have a sneaking suspicion that GM killed Oldsmobile because the
Pontiac and Buick lines were creating too much overlap and no one had the
imagination or initiative to draw distinctive lines.  Buick was always much
more "your father's" car than was the Olds (although, I must confess, that
my dad once owned an Oldsmobile).  PLAYBOY is no longer the main money-maker
for PEI.  Will Spice TV and the Cyber Club become Pontiac and Buick?

> 
> For my Grandfather the beauties on the "Jackie Gleason Show" were as
> close as he got to admitting to me he was a sexual being. (Side note:
> Victoria Valentino was one of those beauties). I could see the value, to
> be sure, but the fact that my Grandfather was interested pretty much
> assured that I would never take it seriously.

Have you looked at the babes on any of the recent nostalgia TV DVDs?
"Stacked" was a word more frequently used in those days.  Even so, nothing
is dated about today's playmates.  For the most part, they are young
beauties who want to do the same thing that a huge slice of the target
demographic wants to do: hang with celebrities.  By continuing to promote
its playmates as "celebrities," PLAYBOY is achieving wide brand recognition.
Can you keep up with the TV appearances of nearly every contemporary
playmate? I sure couldn't, even if I wanted to.

> 
> Part and parcel of this problem is that each generation needs to feel
> that it invents its own culture. Playboy is trying very hard to follow
> the latest iteration of cool, but it's been at least 35 years since they
> led the pack. I'm not sure Playboy could ever become the leader it was.
> Too much history in a world where the new is worshiped.

I agree that each generation must define its own culture; who else could?
But this fact is no reason that PLAYBOY cannot be as cool as a PT Cruiser.

I disagree about "too much history."  As Americans, we seem to be going
through a period when history, especially American history, is a desired
commodity.  Two of the best selling books over the last two years have been
histories: Sea Biscuit and the John Adams biography.  The new has always
been worshipped, but many people now also respect the past.

Furthermore, I disagree with the popular notion (but not articulated in
Mark's post) that the 18-35 demographic does not read anymore.  This is flat
false.  Who's reading those Lord of the Rings books?  Who's hanging out in
the graphic novel section of the book store?  Indeed, who's sipping $4
coffees at the Starbucks in the Barnes and Nobel?  Or sleuthing around the
Strand in NYC?

I've said it before.  I will say it again: PLAYBOY must not condescend to
its audience.  Enough magazines already do that.  The details of
sophistication change with each generation but the attitude doesn't.

PLAYBOY should be your father's '49 Merc: chopped, lowered, with lake pipes
that rumble sex.

regards,

Dan Stiffler