Lovehoney Group, a sexual-wellbeing company, will be airing a commercial for their brand Womanizer‘s latest release, a shower head sexual stimulator called the Wave, on TV before 9pm. A landmark achievement, the product ad will appear on Channel 4 pre-watershed, marking a milestone in sexual wellness advertising, according to The Drum.
Already the first sex toy company to run TV ads, back in 2011, Lovehoney continues to pave the way for the normalization and destigmatization of sexual wellness products.
About their new commercial achievement, the company’s global brand director Helen Balmer, says: “Ourselves and our creative agency, Skylark Media, worked closely with Clearcast to work within requirements for a pre-9pm TV ad; ultimately, the ad was given a ‘non-kids classification’ – meaning it’s down to the broadcaster to determine which programs are appropriate for the advert to appear on. The greater challenge was creating an ad that complied, rather than securing the slot.”
Balmer has declined to say if any broadcasters have so far rejected the commercial. But according to The Drum, Channel 4 has made their commitment to running the campaign.
“They say that the commercial will run during programs including The Big Interiors Battle and has even aired during some morning programming on E4,” reports The Drum.
About working within the limitations of TV, Balmer continues: “We usually can’t advertise pre-9pm and aren’t allowed to show any sex toys before 11pm, so we had to come up with an inventive way of promoting our product without actually showing it. We, therefore, had to come up with a playful, fun and intriguing way to do this, so arguably [the ad] was even more creative than usual.”
The televised ad comes just months after a Lovehoney billboard for a ball gag and with the words “Silence is Golden Harry” was ruled “inappropriate” by an Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) ruling.
“One of our great goals at Lovehoney is to normalize the conversation around sexual wellness and bring sex toys to the mainstream, and what better way of doing this with such a great product and a TV ad showing before the watershed?” says Balmer. “This advert should go a long way in building awareness and acceptance among the general public towards the concept of sexual wellness, and it is certainly a step in the right direction.”
Read the original story and watch the Lovehoney Group commercial here.
