Ava Regina (was Hef Rex)

[Steve Sloca]

Donna Tavoso wrote:
>You can't replace an icon, stop trying.  No matter how we hate it, no
>one can truly succeed him, because he is in fact irreplaceable.  No
>Playmate, no editor can be that person.  For me, it is the ultimate
>act of disrepect to Hef to imply that Ava (who I know and repect) or
>any Playmate can viewed as his successor, no matter what title you put
>on it.

And then Brian Sorgatz wrote:
>On the question of disrespect, I think you and I must agree to disagree.  
>But there is a real danger of PLAYBOY becoming a soulless corporate machine, 
>and a charismatic successor to Hef may be the best defense against this.

Although it may be true philosophically that Hef is "irreplaceable,"
the fact is that Playboy *must* replace him--and soon.  Hef is 77+
years old, at the very end of his expected lifespan; and he has
already had a number of minor strokes.  His rather dissolute
lifestyle, drug use and continual partying do not make him a likely
candidate to reach age 80, much less a later birthday.  Upon his
death, voting control of Playboy Enterprises, Inc. will rest in the
hands of his successor as trustee of his children's trust.  I don't
know who that is, but whether it be Christie or some other current
"insider," we can expect that the successor trustee will face
considerable pressure to sell voting control, either in a public
offering or private sale.  Hef's two young sons, the primary
beneficiaries of the trust, have a long way to go to reach maturity
and/or to obtain a distribution of the trust's assets.  If I were
Kimberly (who would become the sole legal guardian of these
beneficiaries) or her financial advisor, I would not want her
children's future inheritance to be tied up in a single stock,
particularly one which does not pay dividends.  Playboy Enterprises
has not been a good investment over the past 10 years; and
diversification is almost a requirement of good trust management.  I
am also not sure that Kimberly would want her children to grow up
trying to emulate Hef.  Thus, I predict that after Hef's death,
control of Playboy will pass from the Hefner family hands either to
the public or (more likely) into the grasp of one of the big media
companies looking for content and not afraid to risk public censure by
taking on Playboy.

Up to now, Hef has been "the man" when it comes to the magazine and
most of the other Playboy ventures' content; and there is nothing more
unsettling and disrupting to an organization than the death or
incapacity of its chief executive, especially when there is no
clear-cut line of succession or a trained replacement ready to step in
and take over the control which Hef now exercises.  Thus, like it or
not, if Playboy is to have a future beyond its 50th birthday, it must
identify, train and promote that successor (or successors) now.  The
alternative is years of floundering around after Hef's sudden demise
until the company is bought by someone else with a sense of direction,
or even worse, years of a "gray twilight" with Hef in a lingering
decline and the magazine taking on an even more increasing geriatric
tone.  The public image of Hef and a pack of 70-year old cronies
partying with their 20-something "bunnies" is bad enough.  It could
only get worse if Hef lingers on, perhaps with Parkinson's or
Altzheimer-like symptoms.

The "Playboy lifestyle" and "Playboy image" are an important part of
the brand; and if that image is to be continued for another 50 years,
there has to be one or more spokespersons available to exemplify that
image.  Otherwise, as Brian notes, the image gets lost in the
"soulless corporate machine."  The purpose of this Forum is to
identify those changes and developments which Playboy should be
implementing to preserve its future; and from the comments of many
here, the retention of the lifestyle and image of "the Playboy man"
(and his women) as projected in the magazine during its '60's and
'70's heyday is a critical part of that preservation.  There is
nothing more important in that regard than developing--and promoting
in the magazine--a successor to Hef as the Playboy brand's
spokesperson.  Whether it be a Playmate or group of them, Kaminsky and
a bunch of Maxim "lads," or a younger Hef-like male--someone has to
fill that need for a brand spokesperson; and that spokesperson needs
to have the ability to create, as well as to exemplify, the Playboy
image as it evolves in the 21st Century.  We should not let nostalgia
or even reverence for Hef's past accomplishments blind us to the fact
that this change *must* come, either by design, as Brian, I and others
have proposed, or by the inevitable laws of nature and economics, as
Donna seems to advocate.  Hef's "day in the sun" in just about
over. The future of Playboy's image is what we have to focus upon.