History of Advertising Through Playboy

Playboy has unveiled a new site called Playboy Archive.  The site currently consists of 53 back- issues of Playboy dating from January 1954-May 2006.  What intrigues me believe it or not is the advertising!  No Im not lying……of course the gorgeous naked women are a bonus!  Get this….in a issue from ‘56 the only references to cigarettes & booze were cartoon style.  By 1966 in one issue they’re was 27 ads pertaining to cigarettes & booze not counting cartoon or casual photos. 

In a December 1977 issue I counted a staggering 67 cigarette & booze ads over 376 pages…..basically that’s one ad every 6 pages.  When I counted I was adding up blatant ads, not casual pictures with people smoking or drinking.  When I check out an issue from 1982 they’re was 42 ads, in April 1993, 19 ads and by April 2005 only 13 ads pertained to cigarettes & booze.

Other ads that stood out over time were made for Porsche.  In ’78 an ad ran for the Porsche 924 selling for under 11k….Fast forward to ‘01 and we get a sneak peak to the 600 horse power Porsche Carrera GT  with an estimated selling price of 400k!  On page 156-157 of a June ‘83 issue you see the “146 M.P.H Sound System” contest for Kool cigarettes which looks to be a collaboration between Porsche, Blaukpunkt and Sony….I don’t know about you but I haven’t seen a collaboration like that lately??

Other ads of how technology has truly evolved are Radar Detectors, Walkman and Camcorders.

Take a look at the site, you wont be disappointed!