Was looking through PlayboyTV(Playboys streaming site)and realized, the whole site is probably less then 5% of Playboys video content, not counting magazine content. Any new videos they post come from 3rd parties, and the classic stuff just seems so random, with no incentive to add anymore in sight. I know Playboy got sold a long while ago, but at the same, no ones even attempting to keep the brand alive.
The move to using pornstars as models basically spelled the sign of the times. Playboys 90s stuff is impeccable, cause the quality of women was a few steps above pornstars, you had extremely kempt, very feminine women, that had to meet a certain standard to be apart of Playboy. Now those same women that should work for Playboy, work for Onlyfans, and command a premium to do anything, and Playboy should be paying them, cause their suppose to be the super premium brand in adult entertainment.
I don't know why but, subscribing to any Playboy product, you swiftly feel how dead and hallow it is. No ones making an attempt to continue the lineage, no one really wants to front the money. Playboy today should have the hottest women working, best production values, most advanced DRM system of any website and the most erotic/sensual/attractive content out of any service. Right now, I just wanna see an appropriate amount of classic content make it to PlayboyTV.
But why isn't Playboy the most premium adult content provider right now?
Playboy started dying in the 70s losing out to the rise in explicit content available elsewhere. You are asking the question 50 years later why they died. Easy, they can't make any money doing what you want.
To say Playboy began its demise in the 70s is a little extreme, cause the brand basically expanded with a premium cable network in the 80s, don't forget the celebrity shoots and their home video business. If you have to pinpoint the dying days of Playboy, it has to be after the Kim Kardashian shoot(around 2007-2009)the company as a whole never really transitioned in too the internet/digital age in the 2010s. The availability of hardcore porn certainlydidn't help Playboy, but I don't think it hurt it that much cause the hardcore porn fan was never the audience in the first place.
You wanna see very kempt, very beautiful naked women(not in porn) in softcore videos and doing nudes, thats Playboy. Only reason they'd be a money loser now, is if they plan to make a whole lot, by spending almost nothing. Playboy stopped doing nudes officially cause the premium to get non-pornstar/IG model women to do softcore was too much, but their the quality Playboy is known for. Changing times hit them extremely hard, the softcore market is basically dead beyond way overpriced onlyfans accounts.
You have to wonder, do people really not want Softcore, when individual women on Onlyfans make some porn studios yearly budget, in a month, off of teases. If anyones gonna actually bring softporn, it has to be Playboy in my opinion, its just that, they'd probably have to blow a good bit beyond even Vixens budget to get a product out there that'll actually appeal to people.
Edited by - Sexuallysexy99 on 2/17/2024 11:58:26 AM
Not sure if the widespread negative publicity Hef has been getting even before his death has anything to do with this. When we learn about some of the reports or ways people have described him including experiences at the Playboy mansion, Playboy doesn't seem classier than the rest of porn anymore (though I've never been into the "whorearchy" in the first place). In fact, some of the stuff he was reportedly into goes beyond what may be legal to produce in porn (at least in the U.S.) and I'm not going to mention it on here. Let me put it this way, it's far more explicit than what's typically in even hardcore porn.
In fact, his ex-girlfriend Holly Madison has spoken out and written about about him, describing him as exploitative, manipulative, overly controlling, and somebody who preyed off women's vulnerabilities. She's not only the ex-girlfriend or Playboy model who described him this way, though different people may have different perspectives and experiences. Not so different from how Max Hardcore or another porn producer whose name can't be mentioned on this site have been described. Multiple girlfriends reported Hef payed them a weekly allowance to be his girlfriend and have sexual relations with them, which isn't different from prostitution or sugardaddy relations except other sex workers may in some cases have more freedom over their money. Reportedly, Hef didn't let the women save up money and required they spend it, including on outfits and physical upkeep for when they went out with him. If this happened, it kept them financially dependent on him.
Please don't mistake me. I'm not shaming the women for this and very much support the human rights of sex workers. Just disagreeing that Playboy was superior to the rest of the sex industry. Rather, it was part of the sex industry with more mainstream acceptance.
If the women were willing to exchange sex for money, they could have made more working as independent escorts, in legal brothels, or for porn companies under contract or for multiple companies on a scene by scene basis plus had more freedom than living under his control at the mansion and only allowed to be with him as they described it. The way they described the set up, it seemed like a "pimp's stable" where there was his head girlfriend (which Holly Madison was) and then the other women and all were expected to give him sexual favors.
Even without all of the above issues, the changes in Playboy can just be the sign of the times. With all the free content available, Playboy may find it less luctrative to put the time and money into new content or paying premium rates. Multiple porn companies also provide third party content on their sites, so Playboy isn't unique in this sense.
Once the clubs & magazine faded, thought the Playboy operation just floundered around with content that was too tame for the times. It didn't help that the sexual revolution Hef was advocated for was a reality. Remember him saying the golden age of sex started with birth control & ended with the AIDS epidemic. Thought that also could apply to his empire. Regardless, the audience for the stuff you enjoyed wasn't large enough to keep the train rolling.
Indeed, I've definitely heard unfavorable things on Hefner, dude was just a nasty sugar daddy that abused his power. With Onlyfans and the independence of performers working as they please, there will never be another Playboy mansion(at least publicly). Sign of the times and being forced to use pornstars in all there content is whats killing Playboy as a company in my opinion. The incredible Onlyfans girls are charging silly rates to go nude, and rightfully so.
I understand why Playboy won't reboot, cause it would take a huge investment for them to standout vs the porn industry. Softcore porn basically moved to Onlyfans, and its the priced the highest because of the caliber of women, not cause of the actual acts themselves. Playboy couldn't see it coming, but they should've seen it coming. Now its gonna be impossible to get those Onlyfans type women, without paying them professional sports money.
Its exactly why the softcore business is dead, on a professional level, its not that people don't want softporn, its that companies aren't really willing to pay todays stars, so they get the money from their fans. Playboy should've been the NFL of porn, but just like you basically, it was always a scummy sham, the women have turned the tables big time.
If there was no market for softcore, Onlyfans wouldn't be a billion dollar entity. Porn business is just super sleazy and would rather leave softcore and its stars(who are making bank)alone.
Onlyfans is the new Playboy, through & through. These new women way overpriced softporn and people are paying. Alot of customers don't care about the explicit sex act, if its not the hottest woman/the woman they want doing it. Playboy needs a rebrand, badly, but if they mess up said rebrand, it has to be lights out. They either go big, or go home, so there playing it safe by doing nothing.
The audience for softcore isn't large enough for a half ass attempt for sure, people will pay in droves for something exclusive and high quality though.
i read somewhere about 10 years ago when they stopped producing content, essentially that the brand was staying alive just as a "brand" because playboy merchandise sells extremely well in 3rd world asian countries and that is how they make all their money.
Playboy is more than just a magazine or a website. It's also an image. In this sense the topics mentioned and more tarnished or at least put a dent in their image as classy, tasteful, sexual liberation, and freedom. "Raunchiness, dirtiness, nastiness, etc." have been selling points in hardcore porn. Yet, Playboy tried to promote a more wholesome image, which has become harder to do especially considering all that has been reported over the past 6 or 7 years. It seems like they're trying to move away from Hef's legacy (which used to be considered largely positive except from the religious right and a segment of feminists), though I don't think that's possible considering how synonomous he is with Playboy.
As mentioned, they also made a big business selling merchandise and the Playboy logo has become iconic, appearing on clothing, bags, jewlery, etc. They also marketed merchandise to women and from my understanding, most of the fanbase of the "Girls Next Door" reality show starring his girlfriends was females. In this sense, Playboy built a fanbase across genders that wasn't matched in much, if any, of porn. Not sure how much Playboy maintained their female fan base they gained not mainly from the magazine, but from their image.
^ Great points from both comments on the profitability of Playboys merchandise/widespread recognition of the Playboy bunny. Their logo is more then likely, the one thing keeping Playboy doors open. For what Playboy is really known for, its really easy to move on from Hef, he was never the selling point of Playboy. All im really asking is, how do you get this brand back on its feet, cause right now, Playboy is alive but its been bed bound for yrs.
I wonder if the people in charge have any ambitions of what a modern Playboy could be? They should have the hottest in-demand women/ hottest softporn content mixed in with lifestyle/exclusive content beyond porn/erotica, just like the og Playboy, but the main focus should be sex. Add in the most advanced/industry leading DRM system on any website(not just an adult website)that could attract an upscale type of woman to come and work for them, and a big bet on a super premium price, and thats how I pretty much envision a modern Playboy.
If course this is all smoke, and you/I can visit PlayboyTV right now and $1 for 3 days to access a lazily put together library, thats already paid for(and very easy to find free online)with third party Metart content thats yrs old.
Edited by - Sexuallysexy99 on 2/18/2024 4:27:29 PM
Edited by - Sexuallysexy99 on 2/18/2024 4:32:34 PM
i should add that from 2011 to 2015 i was a subscriber. i was fairly young in my mid to late twenties and really found enjoyment in the traditional old playboy magazine format. however when they got rid of nudity i unsubscribed out of principal and have never paid attention to any form of their media since. i would still be subscribed if they had a print magazine that featured nudity,cartoons,and party jokes.
I think what it comes down to is, Playboy built its empire on a platform - a kind of socio-political movement. There was plenty of room to build such a platform in the late '50s and early '60s; today, the socio-political platform space is overcrowded. Its survival as a brand forces it to try to re-establish itself as something resembling what it was, in an era where what it was is extremely dated. The later James Bond movies could play on the fact that the character had become an anachronism, but Playboy isn't in a space where it can play itself as something of a fool, and still get subscribers.
The world it helped change, has moved on. Folks in this thread have commented (correctly) that Playboy's image was about appreciating well-kept, well-groomed, polished, pristine women. Good porn (of which there is an abundance) has taught us that women are beautiful without having to conform to some template of arbitrary perfection, so even the centerfold ideal has become relegated to the history books. The brand experimented with taking the "wholesome" nudity out of it altogether, which just shot a hole in its own keel and made the ship sink faster. With the reality shows, Playboy tried to play on its own anachronism, and the fact that Hef was an ancient guy who couldn't crawl out of his own pajamas, who still kept a harem of fine women. But as Tessa correctly pointed out, that story mainly appealed to women outside its base who were fascinated by self-important bimbos, which did nothing to re-establish the brand's prestige. Playboy was cannibalizing its own brand for value. And the awakening of folks everywhere to the depth of exploitation of human beings by the media industry as a whole, and Playboy having gotten a free pass over the decades as Hef and the Mansion were at least no better than anyone else in the industry, made what remained of the brand look hypocritical, and the air of hypocrisy itself is nuclear to a brand's image today.
Playboy does license its brand to media producers in/for other countries. In Latin America, the "Playboy TV" brand is pasted on a premium channel that plays some hard-ish, explicit, sex. Featuring women who are less centerfold-y, and more natural and unadulterated, so to speak. Some of its productions are surprisingly not bad. There's an argument that Playboy's licensees understand their markets better than PLBY Group Inc. understands its own.
If the Playboy business has a single chance of survival in the 21st century, it needs to conduct some serious audience research to determine who we are as people today, and whether there is an obvious need that no one else is addressing or can address. There's so much sexual content today that even if it produced some really good material, "success" might not be enough to sustain itself as a brand. I believe the world has evolved beyond the Bunny, but certainly not beyond appreciating beautiful women. But they would need to adopt and embrace our notion of beauty, not its own outdated standards.
It's possible someone could take the bunny ears & create a product that would sell in the 2020s. My question is why would you need the bunny ears? Playboy & Hugh Hefner belong to another time. That's what struck me when I read the 1st post of this thread.
Agreed, you really don't need the Playboy logo anymore, the Hugh Hefner association with the logo is whats keeping the company from moving forward honestly. Whoever runs the operation now, should really just shutdown PlayboyTV, every but of the content they have is either extremely old or you can find it somewhere else. They should be preparing a serious business strategy, and the idea should be to sell, under a new name. Big longshot but, if they really wanna re-invent the Playboy image and have the budget to make it the standard in Adult entertainment, while also focusing on lifestyle, best bet would be to sell to Conde Nast(the company that owns GQ).
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