Throughout history people have tended to get a little too creative with household objects, and with lockdown things got even weirder. The loneliest among us may have done sex to some things they definitely shouldn’t have.

Which is why, to help Pornhub launch its new line of sex toys, we created Not My Job, reminding the confined to put down their sexy-looking spaghetti mitts and pick up the right tools for the job. The TVC is a re-written version of The Bad Touch by The Bloodhound Gang, where household items sing as they plead viewers not to use them for shagging purposes.

Simultaneously, we created a digital activation where we let viewers get in on the action, using their dirty minds to score a discount. We used analytics to determine the most used household items associated with sex, and then we turned them all into promocodes. The harder they were to find the higher the discount. Because codes were only valid once, users had to either be very fast or very creative.

It was shot by the brilliant Alice Moitié, and got us a couple of metals and shortlists in different advertising festivals like, D&AD, Cannes and One Show.

This project is:
Client-commissioned

Agency
BETC

Client URL
www.pornhubtoys.com

My Role in This Project
Can I work on a Pornhub brief and still call myself a feminist?
Does it matter to come up with ideas that empower women, when the client and its business is chauvinist in its roots?
Will it be seen as ethical washing?
I’m not 1000% comfortable working for Pornhub, but do I have the right to say it?
If I reject working on this, will I suffer reprisals?

This project made me question myself time and time again. To the point that I thought of not including it here. But now I realize that it was because I did it, that I got to understand where I stood as a person and creative, and how I should position myself in the future. And I’ve learned important things along the way for the future:

i) To understand and respect the boundaries between personal values and professional obligations. At the end of the day we’re all humans and that has to be respected.
ii) If one day I’m leading other creatives, I’ll make sure they’re in a safe space to debate all the doubts I had.

One last thing I would like to comment, is that this project was created together with three other male creatives and a female creative. And this brought a really interesting challenge in making sure that it was respectful to anyone watching it.
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Today I know I will probably not accept to work on another brief for Pornhub, but I would not have formed my opinion if I hadn’t been through this process. Not to criticize those who choose to work for the brand, it’s just not the job for me.