Since when did it become acceptable to advertise sex toys during prime-time TV?
Since 9.50pm, Tuesday night, just before one of those M&S ads that are getting way too tired but still manage to make your mouth water. During Gorday ‘fucking’ Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares in which he somewhat accurately described an entrepreneurial maitre-de as a “fat idiot” and “a weak man”. I’m not talking about Ramsay, it was the advert for a new product by Durex which can only be described as a vibrating cock ring. I was online at the time (I’m a multi-channel grown-up, after all) so, I had to look online at durex.co.uk. The web site took about 50 seconds to load up and it wasn’t a large file size. This indicated that there was a very large number of people taking a look at the same time. Could this make advertising sex toys on prime-time TV acceptable? I doubt it, from a buying perspective, they did great, Ramsay loves to use the word ‘fuck’ a lot. Which tends to suggest that the audience is less likely to be shocked. Of course, this doesn’t mean to say they are going to purchase a vibrating cock ring.
The concept is great and they keep it very much on the monogamist side with phrases on their site like ’spicy twosomes’ and the simple fact that the thing is shaped like an engagement ring. Of course, the ad itself is totally positioned around monogamy and marriage.
It’s a shame they didn’t get their new web site sorted in time, the one that’s up at the moment is total crap.
Here’s the ad: