Playboy wants its fans to forget about the last five years.
The famed magazine underwent a rebrand in 2019, featuring transgender models and celebrities readers didn’t care for, and, most notably, no nudity — arguably the main reason people were interested.
The decision to go woke almost made the brand go broke, but the five-year hiatus was just that — a break — until Playboy realized a return to its roots is what was needed to live another day.
Playboy’s new print edition — complete with Playmates, fully nude pictorials, celebrity interviews and bold journalism — has been a resounding success, according to the magazine’s creative director Smiley Stevens.
“I think with this first issue, we had no idea how people were going to react,” Stevens told L.A. Business Journal, noting the “reaction has been amazing and super positive.”
She explained: “We were kind of testing the waters a little bit, seeing, you know, what the appetite was like. It definitely feels like there is an appetite for Playboy to come back and push boundaries again.”
The February 2025 edition featured model and actress Lori Harvey on the cover while Guess model Gillian Nation was featured as the centerfold as she celebrated her Playmate of the Year title.
It was in 2017, one month after Playboy’s founder and editor-in-chief Hugh Hefner passed away, that the magazine featured French model Ines Rau, its first trans Playmate.
Hugh’s son, Cooper Hefner, said at the time, “It’s the right thing to do. We’re at a moment where gender roles are evolving.”
By 2019, Cooper left the company in the hands of a more progressive editorial team that announced its plans to “be more inclusive, stretching and redefining tired and frankly sexist definitions of beauty, arousal and eroticism.”
Nudity was no more, celebs featured included plus-sized singer Lizzo and non-binary pop star Halsey, while also showcasing gay and queer male models and stars and activists.
Playboy Bunnies were renamed “brand ambassadors,” while the “Miss” ahead of that month’s Playmates was removed to make things more gender-neutral.
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The magazine’s new direction was a flop, and publication of its print editions was shut down within a year.
Now, the revived and reinvigorated Playboy plans to build on its comeback.
The print issue was originally intended to run annually but due to how well it’s performed, Playboy is planning to release the magazine quarterly.
“We’re going to make a big investment bringing back the Playmate franchise, but we have bigger aspirations,” Chief Executive Officer at parent company PLBY Ben Kohn said, noting the magazine will now give the brand the opportunity to work with “the biggest influencers and celebrities around the world.”
Playboy is also considering making the Playmate of the Year a competition that incorporates fan voting from around the world.
The magazine “promises an unforgettable mix of cutting-edge content, bold storytelling, and unparalleled cultural insight,” it said before the issue hit shelves.
“This edition brings back everything that made Playboy a cultural icon while introducing a fresh perspective that resonates with today’s world.”