Playboy magazine was founded by Hugh Hefner in 1953. The magazine is known to have quickly become popular for its thrilling photos of beautiful women. The sales skyrocketed! Every Playboy magazine contains featured playmates, fiction writing, interviews as well as classic art of the playboy magazine. Since the first day of its existence the Playboy Company has developed into a multi-faceted organization which handles publishing, licensing, entertaining, online publishing and sales. It is a multi-million dollar philanthropic foundation nowadays. It has grown into the Playboy Enterprises, Inc. (located in New York City). It reaches every form of mass media. It's a common knowledge that Playboy is one of the best-known brands of the world. The flagship of the Playboy magazine is published in the USA, but at the same time lots of special country-specific Playboy magazines are being published all around the world. Speaking about Playboy magazine it's necessary to notice that it is published monthly. What distinguishes this edition from other ones is that it features photographs of nude females, provides the reader with various articles on sports, fashion, consumer goods, etc. Often it gives a short fiction (by different top literary writers). Playboy magazine is also well-known for expressing the liberal points of view and opinions on the majority of political issues and problems. Playboy magazine shows the readers only the so-called "tasteful" pictures and photos. Therefore they are often considered to be the "soft core" adult material. In response to the Playboy popularity and success lots of other similar magazines started to appear in the 1970s. There were hardcore pornographic magazines, including Penthouse (one the Playboy explicit rivals). Since that time, there was a slow decline in the Playboy's circulation. One of reasons for this was an increased competition between Playboy and Penthouse and later - FHM and Maxim. In response to such a situation Playboy made an attempt to reassert its hold on the 18-35 male demographic group through the slight changes in the magazine's content and focusing on the personalities and issues more appropriate for the mentioned group. As for the Playboy magazine history it was Marilyn Monroe to be the first playmate on the cover, although that picture was considered to be originally taken for some kind of a calendar rather than for Playboy magazine. Playboy has its unique logo - a stylized profile of the rabbit wearing so-called "tuxedo" bow tie. This logo is known to be designed by Art Paul (an art designer) for the second issue of the magazine. Since that time this logo has become the symbol of Playboy and appeared on the cover of every Playboy magazine. The image of the rabbit seems rather playful and frisky; the animal appears as a mascot because of its sexual connotation. The anniversary of the Playboy magazine was celebrated in January 2004. The event had an international significance. The celebrations were held in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, New York and even Moscow.