Why Hugh Hefner’s forays into China were a rather un-sexy affair
While the risqué Playboy brand certainly held international appeal, its success in this part of the world was somewhat lacklustre
While he may have split opinion down the decades – social pioneer who taught America to talk about sex or plain and simple sleaze merchant – risqué is not a word you would use to describe Hugh Hefner’s first foray into China.
Half-a-century ago in January 1967, the Hef hit Hong Kong when, through a local agent, a deal was done for the singularly un-sexy Tingtai Wahchong Metal Manufacturing Company Ltd of Tsuen Wan, to make aluminium beer mugs for the Playboy brand with which Hefner became synonymous.
A year later the Tsuen Wan mug makers marked half-a-million sales by presenting a representative of Hefner in Hong Kong with a commemorative beer mug – there wasn’t a bunny girl in sight.
It was the start of a long – and sometimes fraught – relationship Playboy International had with this part of the world, one which saw the launch of a short-lived Chinese edition of Playboy magazine in Hong Kong to the more recent – and equally short-lived – opening of a Playboy Club in casino town Macau.