‘Knowing What a Man Wants’: Advertising in Playboy magazine, 1972–1982

AbstractThis article argues that faced with the changing cultural environment, competition and financial hardship, Playboy tried to find ways to adapt with more sexualised editorial content, while also making an attempt at maintaining normalcy in the advertising of their ideal Playboy lifestyle in the magazine to keep the illusion of a fantasy lifestyle alive for readers and keep advertisers happy. Playboy’s team, like their readers, had to navigate their own ideas of masculinity, sexuality and feminism – even if that meant maintaining the status quo. This led to an unclear goal for what Playboy was trying to be in the 1970s and 1980s.