The "Urbane Sophisticated Man"... and Woman?

Mark Tomlonson tomlonson@wmich.edu
Fri, 07 Feb 2003 13:46:54 -0500


Steve Sloca wrote:

>I agree that, as conceived by Hefner in 1953 and continued for several
>decades, Playboy was targeted to the "urbane sophisticated man" in the
>20-45 year old age group.
>
I think the audience is still the urbane, sophisticated reader, the 
opposite of the "quarter-educated" crowd Dan mentioned. As Steve pointed 
out later in his post, this audience now includes women.

I was pondering this very question at a stoplight yesterday. Is there 
anything today that is urbane? Is intellectual discussion prized? Or are 
we content with talk-radio style rantings?

If we can define modern urbane then I think we've found the place 
Playboy ought to go.

Mark Tomlonson
Kalamazoo MI