Playboy makes hard seltzer, for some reason. It's... fine.
Play Hard seltzers aren't much more than branding, but they're still OK.
Welcome back to FTW’s Beverage of the Week series. Here, we mostly chronicle and review beers, but happily expand that scope to any beverage that pairs well with sports. Yes, even cookie dough whiskey.
The promotional material for Playboy’s seltzers is a little weird. It’s a woman in handcuffs, holding the can in bound hands behind her back. This implies:
a) unlike with White Claw, standard laws apply whilst drinking Play Hard, and
b) this woman has Cirque du Soleil type dexterity to believe she can drink anything with both hands literally tied behind her back.
The promotional material also name drops Andy Warhol. While I do not have an art history degree, I believe he had no dog in the fight when it comes to hard seltzer.
That, of course, is burying the lede. The real story is that Playboy’s omnipresent marketing wing, having stood witness at the death of print media, has branched out beyond air fresheners and deodorant (so, also air fresheners) and into the crowded landscape of hard seltzers. Alright, then. Let’s see what we’ve got.