Playing the Name Game...
Xbiz Vol 3, Issue 3 March 2008
What’s in a name? A name is a label — it brands a concept or idea and it distinguishes a product as a class or category. So what’s the difference between "adult toy," "novelty," and "sexual health products" or "sexual wellbeing products?" Is it just a linguistic exercise in political correctness? Is it a name game? Is it a category differentiator?For some manufacturers of sex-oriented products, and for some retailers, distancing themselves from the "adult" or "novelty" references and iconography is much more than just political posturing — it is a business plan
That was the beginning of my article published in Xbiz, an insider B2B magazine for the adult industry. I thought the article was well nuanced with a good balance of the linguistic choices looking at a segment of the industry that I was a part of— the part that wanted to distance ourselves from “adult,” from “novelty,” from “porn.’ Yet, I was hopeful that I’d conveyed that I understood embracing those terms too. And the story started because somehow, by accident, I’d run into the SSL Healthcare’s 2007 annual report sent to its stockholders, online. SSL Healthcare is better known to us at Durex, a division of Scholl’s (the shoe insert people).
I quoted that report, and my findings, that:
This broader product portfolio is at the heart of Durex’s repositioning, from a condom brand offering safer sex to a sexual wellbeing brand offering consumers the promise of better sex." Not once is "novelty" or "adult" used in the 100-page document; And with a healthy 17.5 percent adjusted growth in Durex division sales ($367 million of the corporation’s nearly billion-dollar overall sales), I’m paying close attention to this leader in a big way.
I thought I’d walked a tightrope where I honored everyone. I actually defended the big companies, writing: “The leasing of porn personalities or video production company brands is still a healthy — and profitable — business model and there is nothing wrong with it.” I understood the alure of a customer buying something naughty. And I wanted Tantus to be sold side by side with Juli Ashton’s ass (an amazingly iconic porn star and back in the day, an amazingly iconic toy) and I wrote about that too.
But I concluded:
Change is a very interesting thing — some embrace it, some are neutral, and others abhor it. With "sexual health and wellness products" some companies are positioned to drive into new markets and ways of doing business by marketing directly to end users, as well as to mainstream business models and new business opportunities, such as those in the medical industry. And some aren’t. But this isn’t an "Us vs. Them" argument; in the end it’s just plain business.
And not everyone was amused.
Tony Lovett, editor at AVN (Adult Video News), never quoted me or mentioned me or my article once, but he none the less featured an editorial debate on the subject in his next addition of Adult Business News (the AVN magazine dedicated to the sex toy industry) and there was no ambiguity of what side he was on. The cartoon (above) said it all.
Tony called Ian Denchasy, Co-owner of the LA retail store Freddy and Eddy, which had grown from a sex toy review site to a retail and community center featuring classes, espresso, a lending library, and the best of sexual health products circa 2008.
Ian was a friend and Ian was very articulate. He believed in good toys and was knowledgeable about linguistics and the marketing nuance of using language your customers respond to. Still, when I read the editorial debate, I knew it was over what I had written and yet, I knew I had not been asked partake. And yes, I wondered what the fuck that was about.
Tony was a great editor. I liked Tony. He was intelligent and frankly on other issues he’d reached over and handed me peace offerings— he was usually amicable about differences of opinion. Tony had also sent me orchids when my daughter died it was a grand arrangement, it was unexpected and so heartfelt. Unbeknownst to any of them my daughter Athena had a bracelet of white orchids tattooed on her wrist. He had huge credibility with that gesture. The adult industry is many things— but first and foremost we were family; he was family.
Mike Blacksmith had known Tony for a decade by then, when they were both shooting porn and going on GFY (GoFuckYourself) a porn business bulletin board. At conferences, in the bars, they’d sit and reminisce wondering what had happened to this guy or that one.
But Tony was also old school. He was working and speaking for the old crew who started the industry. He and Paul Fishbein, AVN’s Owner, knew that in 2008, their advertising dollars weren’t from sexual wellbeing products; they were from novelties. Tony argued with me about phthalates (the carcinogenic, hormone altering, chemicals which softened PVC toys) and he was arguing with me on this “name game” (while not actually letting me say any more about it— LOL).
And misogyny is written all over the cartoon. It’s belittling. It came in a mass email blast and I saved it immediately knowing it was directed squarely at me. Really, I never thought I was that important to the powers that be. AVN published me a lot. They also wrote great reviews of Tantus’ product. But this… this name game it really hit a nerve.
I saved the cartoon, so I was offended, but I knew deep down I was right. I felt about this as I felt about phthalates, as I feel about laws regarding regulating and obstructing transsexual people from free speech and access to bathrooms — those voices are on the wrong side of history. And as I spoke with Ian about it last week, he assured me even Tony eventually came around. Tony was a good guy… even if he was wrong about this. We were, after all, family.