Playboy unveils ‘safe-for-work’ website, TheSmokingJacket

Playboy founder Hugh Hefner launched a new website stripped of his trademark nude playmates in a bid to make it “safe for work”.

TheSmokingJacket.com is named after the leisure apparel favoured by the 84-year-old Mr Hefner around the celebrated Playboy Mansion.

Playboy Enterprises, publisher of the iconic men’s magazine and the new website, said the site is intended to be a “men’s entertainment destination that provides guys with smart and sexy distractions throughout the day”.

“The smoking jacket isn’t just something I like to wear around the mansion,” Mr Hefner said in a brief video introducing the site.

“It’s Playboy’s new safe-for-work website,” he said. “Next to the mansion it’s the best hangout on the planet.”

TheSmokingJacket.com does not feature any nudity but there is no scarcity of bikini-clad women including pictures from Playboy’s vast archives.

“Cube dwellers and office drones alike shall rejoice at this fun, sexy, satirical antidote to the drudgery of the work day,” Playboy’s editorial director Jimmy Jellinek said in a statement. The site features video clips and articles in several categories – Girls, Entertainment, Sex, Videos and Lifestyle – and is designed to appeal to a younger audience.

For nudity, web surfers can always go to Playboy.com, which attracts more than six million unique visitors a month, according to Playboy Enterprises.

Mr Hefner, who launched Playboy in 1953, recently announced plans to buy all of the outstanding shares in the company to take it private. Penthouse owner FriendFinder Networks has announced an unsolicited rival bid for the company. Playboy, known for its curvaceous centerfolds and bunny logo, went public on November 3, 1971 and enjoyed decades of success. It has been struggling in the digital age, however, and was threatened with delisting from the stock exchange last year.