Sex toy ad creates a buzz

penis ring
The Daily Mail reports that Durex have been given permission to screen UK terrestrial TV’s first sex toy commercial. The disposable vibrating penis ring will be promoted after 11pm on Channels 4 and 5.

The commerical shows a man offering a woman what appears to be an engagement-ring box over dinner. The woman opens the box, smiles, and says “I do”.

The managing director of Durex wants to be able to show the advert earlier in the evening, after the 9pm watershed.

There is nothing rude or crude about the advert, which is tastefully shot, and we feel this restriction is hypocritical, given the images of a sexual nature you quite regularly see on TV at this time of night.

Norman Wells of the pressure group Family and Youth Concern (anti-abortion, anti gay rights, pro hitting children) sees it as yet more evidence that the country is going to hell in a handbasket. In a quote not shown online, he says:

Yet again we have the sex industry seeking to push back the boundaries of what is acceptable on television. The promotion of sex as a purely recreational activity devoid of any lifelong commitment has contributed to the human misery that results from family breakdown, and the massive increase in sexually transmitted infections.

Durex make condoms.


15 Responses to “Sex toy ad creates a buzz”

  1. Tiger Dunc says:

    Hey Norm – The promotion of sex as a purely recreational activity has freed us from the tyranny of socio/religious control, lead to a redress of the inequality in the sexes as women take control of their own sex lives and put a big smile on the face of many men and women in the morning. Hooray!

  2. Bartholomew says:

    Thanks for introducing us to Norm. My favourite Christopher Hitchens quote comes to mind:

    There is almost no English surname, however ancient and dignified, that cannot be instantly improved by the prefix “Spanker.” So deeply is the habit and culture of corporal punishment imbricated with the national psyche that whole shelves of specialist literature, to say nothing of entire racks of newspapers and magazines, are regularly devoted to the subject.

    I wonder if this includes the FYC bulletin?

  3. Andrew Nixon says:

    I must confess that I never thought I’d see the day when I could buy a vibrating cock-ring from Sainsburys.

  4. sconzey says:

    Say what you like about Norm, at least his view is coherent…

    As opposed to the ASA’s ruling…

    I’m with Durex on this, I’ve seen far more objectionable things *before* the watershed than that…

  5. Andy Gilmour says:

    They’re in the next aisle down from the “Deluxe model inflatable woman (whatever that is)”…cue punchline from classic Not The Nine O’Clock News sketch…

  6. martyn says:

    Fucking hell, wait till Norm finds out about’t interweb! I find it odd how day in day out we see death and destruction via the idiot box, yet anything to do with shagging, or the unclothed human body and someone some where is in uproar about it. Shame their convictions don’t lead to them failing to breed, removing their genes from the pool.

  7. Marc Draco says:

    “Norm doesn’t like sex, he sits on a spike!”

    “Wow, Mrs Norm, where do you sit?”

    “I sit on Norm.”

  8. Stuart says:

    Is this guy assuming that sex toys are used only by non-married/committed couples?

  9. Marc Draco says:

    Probably Stuart – he likely thinks that women don’t have a sex drive either.

  10. Tiger Dunc says:

    Women have a sex drive? You’ll be telling me that they have orgasms next.

  11. Bartholomew says:

    I understand they get them from Greek chap named Clitoris.

  12. Marc Draco says:

    Hey Bart, wasn’t he Vagina’s cousin?

  13. Andrew Nixon says:

    Yeah, but he can be a bit tricky to get hold of.

  14. Dan Factor says:

    For many people sex is a recreational activity. It’s fun and adventerous and enjoyable. Sadly groups like Family and Youth Concern want the law to force people to only have the kind of sex they think is right and proper.

  15. Nick says:

    Bart, are you quite sure that you quoted Hitchens correctly and didn’t get your “Sp”s mixed up with your “W”s?
    Mind you, I do think that Peter Hitchens is unintentaly funnier,