The Playboy Bunny logo was created by Art Paul, who was Playboy magazine's first art director, and hired by Hugh Hefner in 1954.
The rabbit was chosen for a mascot because it is an age old symbol of sex and fertility.
The logo is almost as famous the magazine itself and appears on merchindise like posters, t-shirts, and underwear. From the 1960s to 1991, the magazine ran a chain of nightclubs which were staffed by "Playboy Bunnies" waitress and hotessses in tight-fitting bunny costumes!
The original logo sketch, the bunny, just like Hefner, flamboyantly dressed in a robe.