Playboy Rebrands Itself For The Metaverse
Playboy, a company, founded by Hugh Hefner and his associates, are looking to the Metaverse to rebrand themselves for a younger audience. The iconic brand was founded in 1953, and the first issue of its magazine featured a centrefold of Marilyn Monroe. As well as featuring scantily clad females, the magazine published writers such as Arthur C. Clarke and Saul Bellow and featured monthly interviews including Martin Luther King and John and Yoko Lennon.
The magazine itself stopped publishing in 2020 due to Covid; the brand seeks to reestablish itself digitally.
“The magazine was one product of the company. But it was really that rabbit head that’s worth billions and billions of dollars and not replicable,”
Playboy CEO Ben Kohn told CNBC.
In December, Playboy launched its social online platform “Centerfold” headed up by rapper Cardi B. In the metaverse, the brand will recreate the Playboy Mansion and have established a collection of nearly 12,000 NFTs in the form of Rabbitars.
The futuristic plans come after an A&E documentary entitled “Secrets of Playboy” aired in January, painting an unflattering past alleging Playboy had a dark side. The company released an open letter in response stating, “today’s Playboy is not Hugh Hefner’s Playboy”.
