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Double Standard In Ads For Sexual Arousal Aids

So it's okay to talk about four-hour-long penile erections during family TV time -- we even joke about having to explain this to the kids -- but ads for products that help women get sexually aroused have to be aired only when the tykes can't hear them? What is this about?

Abby Ellin takes on this issue with a look at advertising for Zestra, a product having to do with sexual arousal, which faced the mighty challenge of trying to create radio ads without using the words sex and arousal. One station offered to air them from 11 p.m. to 4 a.m. and from 8 to 9 a.m.

Zestra came close to being featured on WebMD's sex and relationship section, which regularly posts advertorials on Viagra and erectile dysfunction, but the company that makes the product got an e-mail saying that Zestra "did not fall in line with WebMD's Best Practice Guidelines." No explanation was given. Amazingly, WebMD didn't respond to Ellin's inquiries. Nor did Facebook, which pulled a Zestra ad, stating that it doesn't allow ads that "promote adult content."

"Double standards abound when it comes to advertising anything having to do with our private parts," said Robert J. Thompson, a professor of television and popular culture at Syracuse. "Commercials for erectile dysfunction products, which discuss not only sex but the hydraulic processes involved in having sex have played during major venues like the Super Bowl. They boldly tout male sexual pleasure as a commodity: an erection in a bottle.

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Read the whole story at New York Times »

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