Sex toy and lingerie brand Lovehoney is aiming to toss off the controversy over its recent advertising ban with the launch of a new out of home campaign encouraging people to be vocal about their sexual desires, under the strapline “Scream your own name”.
Created in-house, the campaign will run at Westfield Stratford City for a limited time this week and features an image of a hand gripping some bedsheets, asking people to show themselves some love and be loud about it.
The premise is that, ultimately, you do not need anybody else to have a mind-blowing orgasm, but Lovehoney can help you “find your voice”. It is timed to coincide with the run up to “Masturbation May”.
Lovehoney global head of communications and PR Friederike Lewin said: “With Masturbation May around the corner, we want to remind everyone that the journey to sexual happiness starts with ourselves, and there is no shame in that – so why not shout about it.
“Exploring our own body and finding out what we like is a healthy habit and helps to communicate our needs to a partner.”
The ad follows a recent Advertising Standards Authority ruling that banned Lovehoney’s “Silence Is Golden” billboard for displaying the image of a ball gag in an untargeted medium.
At the time, Lovehoney CEO Johannes Plettenberg described the ruling time as “another example of the complete censorship of anything remotely sex positive”. The new billboard does not feature any Lovehoney product and is only being displayed between the hours of 7pm and midnight.
Lewin added that “the widespread censorship of sex positivity means that we need to get creative with our advertisement; this time we are respecting the ASA ruling and doing the opposite of what a ball gag does, and asking people to scream their own names”.
Masturbation May can trace its roots back to 1995, when sexual health company Good Vibrations declared May 7 “International Masturbation Day” in defence of US Surgeon General Jocelyn Elders, who had been fired by US President Bill Clinton the previous year for suggesting that masturbation be part of students’ sex-education curriculum.
The day has since expanded to the entire month of May.
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