For years, condom and other sex-related brands have been stereotyping audiences and sexual behaviour. Predominantly masculine, picture-perfect, hetero-sexual and caucasian. Pretty old-fashioned, don’t you think?
The vegan -yay!- condom brand Huzzy was founded to break down this image and empower everyone to feel free to have sex however they like it, no matter who they are. Sexual preference, gender, colour or bodysize shouldn’t be an obstacle. Having sex your way does not make you less of a person or dishonourable.
Why do social media like Instagram reject female nipples but approve to show male boobs? And why do sex-related brands in particular communicate with a predominantly white, female-led, perfect image? We wanted to use this weird policy and cultural insight in favour of our campaign.
We launched Huzzy on social media with a movie that contains full-on nude portraits of a diverse group of people, to expose our audience immediately to the core message: you should be free to shape your own sex life. By bringing the liberal message around sex in a direct way, we tested our audience’s own sexual-ethical compass: do you accept this or not?
EXPLOITING THE NIPPLE POLICY
Why do social media like Instagram reject female nipples but approve to show male boobs? And why do sex-related brands in particular communicate with a predominantly white, female-led, perfect image? We wanted to use this weird policy and cultural insight in favour of our campaign.
We launched Huzzy on social media with a movie that contains full-on nude portraits of a diverse group of people, to expose our audience immediately to the core message: you should be free to shape your own sex life. By bringing the liberal message around sex in a direct way, we tested our audience’s own sexual-ethical compass: do you accept this or not?
DON’T LIKE WHAT YOU SEE?
SUE US.
We knew in advance that social media like Instagram and Facebook would ban the video. That’s why we had a censored version of the video in place, containing graphic illustrations to cover the private parts. We uploaded this version right after the original version was taken down. It was accompanied with the statement that Instagram and Facebook aren’t as liberal about sex as the world should be. Immediately proving our message and getting even more traction from the online community.
LOVE IS FOR ALL ON HUZZY.LOVE.
We developed the website www.huzzy.love where people could choose to watch the original Huzzy video, or the censored social-media pleasing version. The player keeps track of how the visitors like to watch the video.
With an ease-of-purchase shopping module, some smart ux writing and of course a tempting package you're dying to get your hands on, the rubber johnnies went through the roof in no time.
POWER TO DEEN
Deen, one of the characters in the film are non-binary and were in transformation during the making of the film. They chose to participate because throughout their lives, they were never able to recognize themselves in advertising or popular culture. Notice how non-binary persons want to be addressed with they/them.
Results
300%
increase of direct sales on their own website
200%
increase of wholesale distribution
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Huzzy was able to land a long-term sales contract with EDC (Easy Toys, Beate Uhse), one of the largest European distributors of erotic supplies.
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+1.500 new Instagram followers
WE COULDN’T HAVE DONE THIS WITHOUT…
Kilos of M&M’s, coffee, Kodachrome 35mm film and the love and craftsmanship of Nirit Peled (director), Stephan Polman (dop), Blesz (spoken word and music), Bernie van Vlijmen (motion graphics), Gert-Willem Visser (editor), Iris Anne de Smit (illustrator), Anne de Ritter (producer), Jackie Ashkin (spoken word) and every lovely person in the film.