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Transcription
Belonging to the Playboy Club.
Hi I’m Brian Pombo, welcome back to Brian J. Pombo Live.
Today, I have here a what I believe is a replica of one of the keys that you would get when you are a member of the Playboy Club.
Now, I’m not going to clear the air here completely.
I’m not saying one way or the other whether this was a good or a bad thing. What I want to do is discuss the thoughts behind it.
The business idea, the business concept behind it, besides the fact that it was you know, pornographic and everything else, I want to talk about the Playboy Club, which was a group of nightclubs that were started out by Hugh Hefner, back in the world would have been the would have been the early 60s, late 50s, I can’t remember the exact date. They lasted until the 90s.
They had a tough time lasting but in the short run, they had an amazing run and it was extremely popular.
This key did not actually open any door now why when I bought this, they said that it was one of the originals that had never been used, had never been distributed. I don’t know if that’s true or not.
If you’re somebody that can authenticate this type of thing, I’d love to know, I did want it for the concept of it.
Because there’s so much to the entire Playboy empire, that if you remove all of the sex from it, I guess you could say, if you move all of the anything that could be seen as being nasty or wrong, or misogynistic, or anything else, you will remove that.
Just look at the structure of the thing. It was the Playboy Empire was not all that different from Disney. It had a mascot, it had a logo that is to this day extremely recognizable.
What they what he did, though, which was a step of well wasn’t a step ahead of Disney, he and he had opened already opened up the Playboy Mansion as kind of a semi nightclub, what he wanted to do was have a very swanky place where people can go all across the world to different cities, and be able to go and be a VIP experience.
That was the whole idea behind it and what you would do is you would show them your key and this got you in the door that showed that you had paid membership dues, and that you were allowed in to the Playboy Club.
Now, what was different from the Playboy Club than everything else, it was high end, they spent a lot of money on it, the waitresses were were very partially clothed, dressed as a little in little bunny outfits.
Nowadays, it’s very common, you go to a place like Las Vegas, nearly every casino, the the women are walking around dressed in very similar outfits at that time, it was extremely risky and very, very, to the to the end of things. But this is after the the magazine had already opened up right.
All this stuff was already he was already known for these types of things. So it just added a mystique and added everything else. But what what’s the real power behind this the real power is, is when you had one of these you belonged to something you had access to something you could take care of any FOMO that you have that fear of missing out.
When you had one of these, you were the cool guy and that was the whole concept behind it. And because of that everyone wanted one.
Not everyone but you get my dread that in in it was very cool to have a key to the Playboy Club, whether you ever went or not just the fact that you had one was a powerful thing.
Disney later, you I don’t know I doubt he copied this concept. But it was it was the era of the cocktail time when drinking was very hip and, and hanging out in a cocktail bar was very happy.
Disney created his own VIP bar, which we talked about earlier in an earlier episode called Club 33 that he was building in Disneyland right about the time when he passed in the mid 60s.
Right just previous to when he passed I should say it’s still there, that Playboy clubs are no longer there. So there’s a real magic to creating a sense of belonging to have tokens associated with that belonging in to have experiences that people can have in real life, not just online, not just in a fantasy place in real life, you can go to this place and see other people in there who were also members.
Powerful stuff, especially because it was tied to a different medium, you go and you tie it to a different medium that people aren’t used to.
None of the other cars, you know, you go to any cocktail bar, you go to other private clubs. But none of them are tied to your favorite magazine, you know.
You put all these things together, it’s a brilliant, it was a brilliant business move by Hugh Hefner, who if you have not seen, I heard recommendation from Dan Kennedy, and I seeked out this mini series, so many series on the life of Hugh Hefner, which is very interesting, I’m going to review it tomorrow night.
Once again, you have to be able to separate yourself from the morality of a person and the morality of a company and what they do and be able to see, okay, what, what real human needs and wants and desires?
Are they solving with this company, because all companies that become really large and are really powerful and have a really strong tie with their audience. All of them are, are not, it’s not just about the initial thing that’s on the surface.
You know, Disney wasn’t just about cartoons.
Playboy wasn’t just about naked women, and the whole sex misteak. But in the same sense, that was the hook that brought you in, but people stuck. And people got into it, because of a sense of belonging, because of a sense of adventure.
I mean, there’s a whole lot that goes along with it.
Playboy clubs were just a small piece of that, and the concept of belonging about having a VIP experience. It’s something that everyone should look into, which is why I always recommend subscriptions and memberships and things of that sort.
So that’s all I’ve got for tonight. We’ll be back tomorrow night. In the meantime, go check out my book, 9 Ways to Amazon-Proof Your Business. I offer a free copy at AmazonProofBook.com.
See you tomorrow. In the meantime, get out there and let the magic happen.