In Barbara Ehrenreich’s book, Hearts of Men, she talks about the launching of Playboy in 1953. At that time, a man who stayed single was suspected of homosexuality. The idea of being straight, of sound mind and body, and unmarried was unthinkable. So what Hugh Hefner did was invent a whole new kind of man, the playboy. The playboy stayed single (so as to have lots of ladies), kept his money for himself and his indulgences (that being booze and, of course, the ladies), and re-purposed the domestic sphere (enter: the snazzy bachelor pad full of booze and ladies). With this in mind, check out this ad from a 1969 issue of Playboy (found at Vintage Ads):
Text:
What sort of man reads Playboy? He’s an entertaining young guy happily living the good life. And loving every adventurous minute of it. One recipe for his upbeat life style? Fun friends and fine potables. Facts. PLAYBOY is read by one of out every three men under 50 who drink alcoholic beverages. Small wonder beverage advertisers invest more dollars in PLAYBOY issue per issue than they do in any other magazine. Need your spirit lifted? This must be the place.
The ad is a nice demonstration of Playboy’s invention of a new kind of man (“an entertaining young guy happily living the good life… loving every adventurous minute of it”) instead of the old work-a-day Joe stuck at a boring, dead end job to support his wife and kids.
