PLAYBOY: Your Father's Oldsmobile?

[Mark Tomlonson]

Dan Stiffler wrote:

>On 2/3/03 4:28 PM, "Mark Tomlonson" <tomlonson@wmich.edu> wrote:
>
>>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.
>
These "retro" cars are all successful re-inventions of cultural icons. I 
own both a "New" Beetle and an "Old" Beetle. Other than their corporate 
parentage and lines taken from the same section of the French Curve, 
there are *no* similarites between the two.

I've mentioned this before: It wasn't until VW could show that it had 
moved beyond its air-cooled heritage that it became successful. VW 
almost pulled out of the U.S. market entirely ten years ago. I see 
Playboy at that crossroads now. It's still running that same air-cooled 
motor that made it famous. When its target audience looks at Playboy 
they see a pokey, underpowered tin box with an erratic heater, not a 
fully modern car with a CD player, airbags and cupholders.

Where I fall down is finishing this metaphor. What would the "New" 
Playboy be? What kind of magazine would pay homage to the past without 
being hidebound by it? What part of the magazine should be retained to 
keep that classic curve?

My preference would be a centerfold as the link between the old and new 
Playboy, but maybe that is the air-cooled engine.

>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?
>
Nope. But the 442 was atypical for Olds. How about the 88?

>
>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.
>
No reason at all. But will it? Upper management fought the New Beetle. 
The PT Cruiser was at best greeted with suspicion.

>The new has always
>been worshipped, but many people now also respect the past.
>
But are enough of those people in Playboy's audience? I've *always* had 
an interest in history, but I can assure you that was not my primary 
goal when I first came in contact with OFM.

>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.
>
Here we agree 100%. My position is that the '49 Merc is ready to 
restore. It's not rumbling now, but it could.

Mark Tomlonson
Kalamazoo MI