It’s a question we’ve been asking ourselves for years.

It’s something we feel pretty strongly about here at Fancy. Why can we advertise condoms as long as we don’t discuss how they make a woman feel? Why can we advertise a drug to make a man get an erection, and even say *gasp* “erection,” but we can’t advertise a product or even name such a product that’s designed to increase her pleasure?

Last week we spoke with Campaign about the difficulties in selling what we can’t even say. We’ve worked with Lion’s Den to try to normalize the conversation around sex toys, and we’ve definitely moved the needle, but the crazy thing is we’ve had to do it without showing or saying anything specific about what you can actually buy in the store! Fortunately they have the budget to buy broadcast placements where, oddly, the restrictions are less constricting than social media where you can target much more specifically. I know. It doesn’t make sense.

Smaller (and often women-owned) brands without that kind of budget would normally depend on social media for their advertising. When that’s off limits, their options for reaching the very women who need the information are severely restricted. And keeping the conversation out of the public realm just adds to the taboo nature of the category. It’s a vicious circle and it needs to be broken.

It’s why one of our specialties is bringing the hush-hush out into the wide-open. We’ve done it with periods. We’ve done it with incontinence. We’ve done it with cannabis. We’ve done it with sex toys. These are subjects that are part of everyday life and so the conversations and products that support them should be too.