Playboy: The Mag That Taught Lads How to Live the Dream

Before FHM, Nuts, or Zoo had us sneaking mags into work under the pretence of "reading the articles," there was one mag that started it all—Playboy. The Don Corleone of lads' mags, the blueprint for living the high life, and the reason half of us thought a dressing gown was a legitimate outfit. This wasn’t just a mag—it was a lifestyle manual.

It all kicked off in 1953 when a young Hugh Hefner—just another bloke in a dead-end office job—decided the world needed more than black-and-white newspapers and dull-as-hell magazines. So, like any proper legend, he borrowed eight grand off his mum (fair play to her) and launched Playboy. To make sure it didn’t tank, he stuck Marilyn Monroe on the cover, and just like that, every red-blooded bloke in America rushed to get a copy. The first issue sold over 50,000 copies, and before you could say "absolute worldie," Playboy was on its way to becoming the most legendary lads' mag of all time.

From a Mag to a Global Empire

By the 1970s, Playboy was selling seven million copies a month. Let that sink in. Seven million lads, every single month, flicking through pages of stunning birds, top-tier banter, and interviews so good even your dad probably read them. It wasn’t just about the centrefolds—Playboy had actual proper journalism. It ran interviews with legends like Muhammad Ali, John Lennon, and Steve Jobs, alongside features on sports, booze, cars, and "how to be a sophisticated man" (which usually just meant wearing a watch and knowing the difference between whiskey and whisky).

And then there was the Playboy Mansion—a place so ridiculous it made Ibiza look like a quiet weekend in Blackpool. Every party was pure carnage, full of A-listers, rockstars, and jammy gits who somehow blagged an invite. Hefner himself? He lived every lad’s dream—permanently in a dressing gown, whiskey in one hand, cigar in the other, surrounded by absolute 10s. A true icon.

The Fall of a Giant

But like every lad who’s ever tried to pull off a double night out, things eventually started going downhill. First, the internet happened, and let’s be honest—why wait a whole month for a mag when the entire world of glamour was one dodgy search history away? Lads weren’t buying mags like they used to, and Playboy’s numbers started dropping harder than a bloke on his sixth pint.

Then, in 2016, some genius at Playboy HQ decided to ditch the nudity to make the mag "classier." That went about as well as you’d expect. It was like opening a pub but deciding not to sell beer. Absolute madness. Sales tanked, nobody cared, and within a few years, Playboy shut down its print edition. End of an era.

Could Playboy Make a Comeback?

The question is—could Playboy rise from the ashes like a bloke on his third day of a festival, powered purely by energy drinks and stubbornness? Honestly? It’s not impossible.

Lads still love nostalgia, and we know that for a fact because we had to build a website just to sell lads' mags again after eBay and Amazon banned them. That’s right—if you want to buy a copy of Nuts, Zoo, or FHM today, you’ve basically got to go full black-market dealer. Imagine telling someone in 2005 that in 20 years, buying a lads' mag would be harder than getting Glastonbury tickets.

So yeah, the demand is still there. Maybe it won’t be a magazine anymore, but if Playboy brought back the humour, the ridiculous lifestyle tips, and the absolute legends they used to interview, there’s every chance lads would get involved again.

Until then, we’ll raise a glass to the mag that made us all dream of living like Hefner. Silk robes, cigars, and world-class banter. What a time.