When playboy just had the magazine and clubs it was very special to the point of almost being unique. There were only 12 girls a year that made the centerfold and they were the best of the best. Girls that were far beyond what most would see in their daily life. The anticipation as to who would be the next months centerfold kept the magazine selling.
Playboy had the kind of girls that you could bring home to Mom but wouldn't want to leave alone with Dad
Penthouse had girls with a little more edge and also spread. Hustler completed the trifecta by showing pink. Playboy was simply the best.
When they started their " Special Editions " back around 1985 with a " Girls of Summer " SE it was a way to recycle pictures from their files. Those became very popular and soon they needed more pictures to meet the demand and that meant more models. A few became Playmates but most in the SE were the ones that didn't quite make the cut.
So now Playboy had the Playmates in the magazine and the second string girls in the Special Editions and the quality was still the best. When the internet came along and they made the website they needed even more models and the quality went down pretty quickly to the point where just about any girl could model something for Playboy.
So in the 60s 70s and 80s Playboy picked 12 girls out of thousands to grace the magazine and it was so exclusive it had everyone's attention. Today, thousands of girls model for them and the brand is so diluted it doesn't even matter anymore. As a photographer there was a time when Playboy meant everything to me but not any more after what it's become.
