Last year, the marketing team behind sex toy the Womanizer created what might be my favorite billboard of all time. "Scream your own name." That's just masterful copy (written by Toronto agency The Garden).
Now the device is back on billboards, this time with a more topical and less tantalizing line: "Stay home."
The advice is definitely solid, as voluntary quarantine measures continue in hopes of stalling the COVID-19 pandemic.
But it also highlights an astounding stat: Sales of the vibrator in Canada (where the ads are running) were up a phenomenal 263% in March compared to the same month in 2019. In America, sales rose a still-impressive 152%.
So new ads for the device are encouraging non-essential workers to continue sheltering in place, a trend that's healthy for consumers and clearly healthy for the brand.
As the project's associate creative director, Lindsay Eady, put it in my article on the campaign: "Front-line workers are going out into the world and risking their lives. The least we can do is stay home and masturbate."
Cheers to all of you doing your part,
David Griner
Creative and Innovation Editor, Adweek
David.Griner@Adweek.com
