opinion

Hefner’s Legacy Lives On in the Industry

Hefner’s Legacy Lives On in the Industry

The moment when I read the news that the founder of Playboy had passed away at 91, it shocked me in a way that hurt and was hard to describe.

Losing Hefner is a big one — not just for Playboy or the adult industry, but for the world. Women loved him, men wanted to be him.

Playboy brands is one of the most recognized in the world and basically the origin of all modern pornography.

The man moved boundaries in a way that no others did, and he catapulted imitators to similar fame and fortune.

But let’s be real — Playboy brands is one of the most recognized in the world and basically the origin of all modern pornography.

Even when I met my wife she owned a Playboy mug … and something told me we would get along.

I knew Hefner only through his global brand and his numerous appearances on TV, documentaries and one “Simpsons” episode. I felt that we shared several similarities in work ethic.

He was an impressive writer, and perhaps he and I shared a little bit of lifestyle during my recent single years.

While I feel a genuine respect for his life and all he accomplished and enjoyed, the differences between us are stark and his words, “life is too short to be living somebody else’s dream,” seem fitting here.

I can’t name a single person with any true similarity to his life, nor anyone who could hold a candle to Hefner. At least, the Hefner he wanted us to see. I’m sure there are many people who would never condone of his magazine or his lifestyle, but to hell with them. His life is not anyone’s to judge.

An avid movie buff, his movie nights were often mentioned in his Twitter feed which went quiet on Sept. 19. He loved media and movies so much that he not once, but twice helped to save the iconic Hollywood sign.

First in 1970 when Hefner held a party that helped to raise the $250,000 to replace the aging Hollywood sign letters. Later, he pledged the last $1 million needed to save the land surrounding the sign as part of the total $12.5 million cost. Hefner once stated that the sign represented “dreams” and that’s exactly what his life embodied. His dream was, like every entrepreneur, for a life beyond the average.

Despite the fear of doing so, mainstream brands should recognize that porn is entertainment and that its consumers are regular people with numerous interests, much like Hefner.

These companies are willing to pay fortunes in mainstream media when there is a huge opportunity in the adult industry to reach the same people at a fraction of the cost.

The adult industry is still pushing aggressively into the boundaries of the mainstream.

One example is “Middle Men,” the 2009 movie about card processing in the porn industry. Last year, Chris Mallick, producer and former owner of ePassporte, launched a lawsuit against Paramount for doing “little” to promote the movie.

Unlike “Middle Men,” the 2013 movie “Don Jon” found an audience and actually made a healthy profit. The movie starred Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who plays a porn addict who just can’t stay away from searching for the “perfect clip” on PornHub despite landing a girlfriend played by Scarlett Johansson.

In October 2014, PornHub managed to get its “All you need is hand” billboard into Time Square. Bravo. Except, it survived only 48 hours before it was taken down.

BuzzFeed later reported that the billboard was taken down by “demand” from the Hilton DoubleTree hotel, which reportedly had full approval rights for the ads in that location.

Go figure. Family brands don’t want to be next to non-pornographic ads promoting pornography.

Back in 2015, Chris O’Connell from Mikandi was featured in a Wired magazine article about how the porn industry wasn’t the skeevy cesspool that Hollywood and fake “talent agents” would have lead the public to believe.

This past August, three additional punches were made into the mainstream media.

CamSoda submitted an open letter to the press offering a gig worth $500,000 to the recently ousted Trump Press Secretary Anthony “The Mooch” Scaramucci.

Instead of accepting it, he went on to launch his own news outlet, “The Scaramucci Post,” dedicated to the “center” of the often-mind-boggling feud between the political right and left. (Maybe the CamSoda porn gig would have been the better choice and more his forte).

Shortly after CamSoda’s stunt, xHamster’s vice president offered Netflix’s “Sense8” a third season about the highly sexual series about “polymorphous perversity.”

While I’ve never actually watched the show, I suspect fans wouldn’t really care who paid for it as long as they get more of the free entertainment they are accustomed to. A porn tube site seems like a likely partner.

During all of this, RedTube threw its hat in the ring as well, offering to sponsor the New York City red line. This proposal was brilliant, and it would effectively have people literally riding a “Red Tube.”

Even 64 years after the first Playboy issue hit newsstands in 1953, the hypocrisy of “everyone watches porn, buts its unacceptable in the mainstream” lives on.

However, the book sales and box office take of “Fifty Shades of Grey” tells a much different story about what people’s attitude towards sex and porn really is; they are curious and they like it, but people won’t always admit it. The hypocrisy lives on.

Hugh Hefner’s legacy is the adult industry. Let’s try not to fuck it up by forgetting his level of debonair.

The adult entertainment industry will never stop pushing to be accepted, and despite the hypocrisy the majority surely have already accepted the industry and his legacy.

Juicy Jay is the CEO and founder of JuicyAds, the Sexy Advertising Network. You can follow Jay on Twitter @juicyads, visit JuicyAds.com, or like on Facebook.com/juicyads.

Related:  

Copyright © 2024 Adnet Media. All Rights Reserved. XBIZ is a trademark of Adnet Media.
Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission is prohibited.

More Articles

profile

VerifyMy Seeks to Provide Frictionless Online Safety, Compliance Solutions

Before founding VerifyMy, Ryan Shaw was simply looking for an age verification solution for his previous business. The ones he found, however, were too expensive, too difficult to integrate with, or failed to take into account the needs of either the businesses implementing them or the end users who would be required to interact with them.

Alejandro Freixes ·
opinion

How Adult Website Operators Can Cash in on the 'Interchange' Class Action

The Payment Card Interchange Fee Settlement resulted from a landmark antitrust lawsuit involving Visa, Mastercard and several major banks. The case centered around the interchange fees charged to merchants for processing credit and debit card transactions. These fees are set by card networks and are paid by merchants to the banks that issue the cards.

Jonathan Corona ·
opinion

It's Time to Rock the Vote and Make Your Voice Heard

When I worked to defeat California’s Proposition 60 in 2016, our opposition campaign was outspent nearly 10 to 1. Nevertheless, our community came together and garnered enough support and awareness to defeat that harmful, misguided piece of proposed legislation — by more than a million votes.

Siouxsie Q ·
opinion

Staying Compliant to Avoid the Takedown Shakedown

Dealing with complaints is an everyday part of doing business — and a crucial one, since not dealing with them properly can haunt your business in multiple ways. Card brand regulations require every merchant doing business online to have in place a complaint process for reporting content that may be illegal or that violates the card brand rules.

Cathy Beardsley ·
profile

WIA Profile: Patricia Ucros

Born in Bogota, Colombia, Ucros graduated from college with a degree in education. She spent three years teaching third grade, which she enjoyed a lot, before heeding her father’s advice and moving to South Florida.

Women In Adult ·
opinion

Creating Payment Redundancies to Maximize Payout Uptime

During the global CrowdStrike outage that took place toward the end of July, a flawed software update brought air travel and electronic commerce to a grinding halt worldwide. This dramatically underscores the importance of having a backup plan in place for critical infrastructure.

Jonathan Corona ·
opinion

The Need for Minimal Friction in Age Verification Technology

In the adult sector, robust age assurance, comprised of age verification and age estimation methods, is critical to ensuring legal compliance with ever-evolving regulations, safeguarding minors from inappropriate content and protecting the privacy of adults wishing to view adult content.

Gavin Worrall ·
opinion

Account-to-Account Payments: The New Banking Disruptor?

So much of our industry relies upon Visa and Mastercard to support consumer payments — and with that reliance comes increased scrutiny by both brands. From a compliance perspective, the bar keeps getting raised until it feels like we end up spending half our time making sure we are compliant rather than growing our business.

Cathy Beardsley ·
profile

WIA Profile: Samantha Beatrice

Beatrice credits the sex positivity of Montreal for ultimately inspiring her to pursue work in adult entertainment. She had many friends working in the industry, from sex workers to production teams, so it felt like a natural fit and offered an opportunity to apply her marketing and social media savvy to support people she truly believes in and wants to see succeed.

Women In Adult ·
opinion

Understanding the Latest Server Processors

Over the last decade, we mostly stopped talking about CPU performance. Recently, however, there has been a seismic and exciting change in the CPU landscape, due to innovation by a chip company called Advanced Micro Devices (AMD).

Brad Mitchell ·
Show More