The Story of Playboy

At the head of the company was a man whose lifestyle stimulated men'sfantasies just as much as the magazine itself. Hugh Hefner, hedonist,icon of virile machismo and the most famous playboy in the world.Initiator of the sexual revolution, a fighter for civil rights andsupporter of the arts, a liberal saint - or, after all, just an amoralmaterialist, chauvinist and pornographer? Fact is, no other magazinehas had such an impact on American and Americanised culture as theglossy Playboy from Chicago.

Today, Playboy is one the five bestknown brands in the world alongside Coca Cola and McDonald's. Accordingto the Far Eastern Economic Review Playboy is even the most popularbrand in the People's Republic of China - a country in which the itsmost famous product, Playboy Magazine, is categorised as pornography,i.e., illegal. But the Chinese know absolutely what Playboy represents:sex, beautiful women - and sophistication. And in India too, the sexualrevolution, thanks to Playboy, is just a step away.

Thisdocumentary tells the story of the cultural and economical phenomenoncalled Playboy - in times in which the species "playboy" seems to bedying out: An acute evaluation of the broad impact both the Playboymagazine and the brand have had over the past 50 years.