The Playboy Reader

We've always edited Playboy for a particular guy: sophisticated, intelligent, urban – a young man-about-town, who enjoys good, gracious living. Potential advertisers are interested in a more specific picture of a magazine's audience, however. So we commissioned an independent market research organization, Gould, Gleiss and Benn, Inc., to conduct a survey of Playboy's readership.

A questionnaire was bound into every 37th copy of the April issue and the results received and tabulated by GG&B. We thought you might be interested in what we found out about your fellow Playboy readers.

Age The average Playboy reader is very much a young man-about-town. He is 29 years old – ten years younger than the average age of readers in a subscribers' survey conducted recently by the other class men's magazine.

Average (mean) age 29 years

Education Over 70% of Playboy's readers have attended college.

Less than high school

Other specialized schools beyond high school 3.4%

Marital Status Half of Playboy's readers are free men; the other half are free only in spirit.

Occupations The great majority of Playboy's readers are business and professional men and the young men in college who will be in business and the professions in two or three years. Playboy has a greater percentage of college men in its audience than any other national magazine.

Favorite Hobbies And Sports

The playboy reader is a well-rounded man, with a great many interests in addition to women. Percentages add up to more than 100% because some readers listed more than one favorite.

Hobbies

Amateur radio 1.4%

Art 2.2%

Cards 4.1%

Cars 6.1%

Chess 2.4%

Coin collection 2.7%

Cooking .7%

Dancing 2.4%

Drawing 1.7%

Drinking 4.3%

Flying 1.7%

Guns 3.9%

Gardening 2.3%

Hi-Fi 2.5%

Music 7.6%

Model trains 3.0%

Model planes 1.9%

Photography 20.0%

Painting 4.0%

Reading 16.4%

Traveling 3.7%

Woodworking 4.0%

Working on engines 2.7%

Stamp collecting 3.3%

Other hobbies 67.1%

No favorite hobbies 9.7%

Sports

Auto racing 6.8%

Baseball 31.4%

Basketball 22.0%

Boating 4.4%

Bowling 10.5%

Boxing 6.9%

Fishing 19.5%

Football 41.8%

Golf 23.3%

Horseback riding 4.0%

Hunting 13.4%

Hockey 3.7%

Skiing 2.6%

Swimming 24.5%

Softball .6%

Tennis 14.5%

Track 6.4%

Table tennis 2.7%

Water skiing 3.2%

Wrestling 3.5%

Other sports 35.6%

No favorite sports 1.3%

Car Ownership 87.7% of PLAYBOY's readers own cars. Owners were also asked the approximate amount they paid for their last car.

Under $1,000 15.9%

$1,000 through $1,900 16.1%

$2,000 through $2,900 29.8%

$3,000 through $3,900 24.7%

Over $4,000 13.4%

Average (mean) $2,493.93

Clothing You can tell a good deal more about a man by learning what he pays for a suit or an automobile than what he earns each week. PLAYBOY'S readers are spenders, paying considerably more than the national average in both departments. Readers were asked to give the approximate cost of their last suit.

$ 50.00 and under 12.1%

$ 55.00 to $ 70.00 35.6%

$ 75.00 to $ 90.00 31.1%

$ 95.00 to $125.00 14.4%

$130.00 to $150.00 2.7%

Over $150.00 4.0%

Average (mean) $80.66

Vacations playboy's readers are traveling men. Over half (55.7%) have vacationed outside the United States. Readers were asked to list mode of transportation most often used on vacations. Percentages add to more than 100% because some readers listed more than one method.

Private car 43.1%

Airplane 32.8%

Train 17.6%

Bus 4.7%

Boat 4.6%

Other modes of transportation 2.6%

Smoking Habits 81.3% of PLAYBOY'S readers smoke. 82.7% of the smokers use cigarettes, 31.9% enjoy a pipe, 18.2% smoke cigars. Smokers were also asked to list their favorite brands. We were surprised by the showing some of the newer cigarette brands made.

Cigarettes

Lucky Strikes 23.2%

Pall Mall 18.5%

Camels 14.5%

Winston 9.6%

Chesterfields 8.7%

Phillip Morris 6.8%

Viceroy 5.2%

L and M 4.6%

Old Gold 4.2%

Raleigh 2.3%

Parliament 2.6%

Other brands 6.9%

Cigars

Dutch Masters 8.5%

Bering 6.7%

El Producto 6.7%

King Edward 6.7%

Roi Tan 3.5%

White Owls 3.5%

Other brands 44.1%

Pipe Tobacco

#79 Mixture 24.8%

Holiday 7.6%

Bond Street 5.9%

Kentucky Club 4.8%

Edgeworth 3.8%

London Dock 3.8%

Special Made 3.7%

Prince Albert 2.0%

Rum and Maple 2.0%

Other brands 18.6%

Drinking Habits Readers were asked to list their favorite brands of liquor and beer purchased.

Liquor

Seagrams 12.4%

Canadian Club 9.8%

Johnnie Walker 5.2%

Old Grand Dad 3.9%

Smirnoffs Vodka 3.6%

Haig and Haig Scotch 3.2%

Jack Daniels 3.2%

Black and White Scotch 2.7%

Jim Beam 2.3%

White Horse Scotch 2.1%

Four Roses 2.0%

I.W. Harper 2.0%

Other brands 35.8%

No favorite brand 14.0%

Beer

Schlitz 17.4%

Millers 17.2%

Budweiser 12.3%

Hamms 7.2%

Pabst 2.9%

Coors 1.6%

Ballantine 1.4%

Olympia 1.2%

Goebel .6%

Other brands 27.5%

No favorite brand 16.8%

Magazines Advertisers are always interested in what other magazines a publication's readers buy regularly, so here is the list of titles read regularly by more than 5% of PLAYBOY'S men.

Life 43.5%

Esquire 24.0%

Time 23.3%

Saturday Evening Post 22.8%

True 14.9%

Look 14.8%

Reader's Digest 12.4%

Collier's 9.8%

Newsweek 8.7%

Argosy 7.6%

New Yorker 6.7%

Sports Illustrated 5.6%

U.S. News & World Report 5.3%

Mr. Advertiser: If you're interested in selling the young man-about-town and man-about-campus, write for additional information on playboy's reader survey, advertising rates, etc. Address Main Advertising Office, Playboy, 11 E. Superior St., Chicago 11, Illinois. Or phone: In New York, PLaza 9-3076; in Chicago, Michigan 2-4511; in Los Angeles, DUnkirk 4-7352; in San Francisco, EXbrook 2-0159; in Miami, Miami 9-2668.

*Over half of the "College" group are students at the presents time and a good percentage may be expected to join the "College degree" group later.