There’s a happy ending for one couple, who successfully reach the peak together, proving that the treasure wasn’t so hidden after all.

“The campaign is part of a larger effort by the brand to bring their new ‘It’s Playtime’ creative platform to life through activations designed to engage audiences around larger social and cultural issues, but in a decidedly playful way,” says agency ECD Alex Katz.

A website offers consumers more info on the Orgasm Gap, products curated by EasyToys’ sexual health experts and additional videos “cumming soon” like “Exploring the Bush,” “Getting Wet” and “Wild Water.”

The work is running in European markets including the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Italy and Poland, across YouTube, TikTok and Instagram.

“This campaign marks the first in what is a new focus for the brand, in which sex positivity, open communication and daring insights will take center stage in the effort to grow the brand across Europe,” Katz tells Muse.

CREDITS

Agency: Officer & Gentleman
Executive Creative Directors: Javi Iñiguez de Onzoño & Alex Katz
Managing Director: Marta Blanco
Account Supervisor: Elsa Morales
Creative Team: Kiki Holshuijsen, Fran Pascual, Marta del Rosario, Marina Ayora
Director: Andrea Casaseca
Executive Producer: Tadej Magdic
DOP: Marta Díaz
Sound Design & Mix: ATM_Sound
Color: Marta Díaz & Jorge Mayorga

There’s been a whole subgenre of advertising over the past decade where real-life couples sit down and learn something new about each other as a kind of social experiment. This is Pornhub’s version of that.

The adult site worked with agency Officer & Gentleman and Whoisthebaldguy director Michael Krivicka to film real-life couples talking about their porn-watching habits—and then watching porn together as well. The resulting six-minute video promotes the site’s new Premium Lovers joint membership options, designed to help couples better explore and understand their partners’ sexual interests.

Check out the SFW video here:

The effect of porn watching on real-life intimacy is, of course, more complicated than Pornhub presents here—though being open and honest about it certainly seems like a positive thing for couples.

“Watching these different couples interact was a really eye-opening experience,” says Officer & Gentleman co-founder Javi Iñiguez de Onzoño. “It was surprising for us, after five years working with the brand, to see how comfortable people have become talking about porn and what an important role it plays in their relationships.”

“We decided to introduce our Premium Lovers membership in order to provide couples with a resource that can not only help spice up their relationships in quarantine, but also to help each partner learn even more about their lover on a sexual level. Couples who play together, stay together,” adds Corey Price, vice president of Pornhub.

Pornhub, which has a long history of doing creative advertising, is largely ad-supported but does have a Pornhub Premium membership option. The new Premium Lovers membership includes a free seven-day trial, after which it costs $14.99 a month or $142.99 annually for two accounts. 

CREDITS

Agency: Officer & Gentleman 
Executive Creative Directors: Javi Iñiguez de Onzoño & Alex Katz 
Managing Director: Jose Ortiz 
Accounts Director: Mayte Fontán 
Account Executive: Alba Domínguez 
Creative Supervisors: Juan Aldeanueva & Sergio Sanz 
Head of Art: Juanlu Poza 
Senior Art Director: Luis Álvarez 
Art Director: Javier Malluguiza 
Agency Producer: Beto PF 
Production Company: Whoisthebaldguy 
Director: Michael Krivicka
Executive Producer: Christopher Yoon 
Editor: Michael Krivicka 
Color: David Castañón

Pornhub is challenging its community of users and other adult stars to create their own contact-free adult videos with the hashtag #cleanestpornchallenge.

“If there’s something the coronavirus has taught us, it’s that there’s no such thing as being too safe,” says Javi Iñiguez de Onzoño, co-founder of Officer & Gentleman. “That’s why we wanted to raise awareness and inspire people by showing that social distancing can be sexy, too.”

The full uncensored video is posted to Pornhub (obviously it’s very NSFW). It was filmed on a polluted Caribbean beach, and shows LeoLulu getting busy while a Pornhub sanitation crew cleans up around them. 

The project was a bit of a departure for the agency, Officer & Gentleman. The shop has produced lots of SFW videos for Pornhub over the years, but this was it’s first time actually shooting a porn video. 

“Shooting an adult film was not something we ever thought we would do,” executive creative director Alex Katz tells Muse. “This was new territory for all of us involved—except maybe for the stars of the film, of course. In the end, though, it just becomes a shoot like any other, in which your job as a creative is to focus on how the film is coming out and getting the shots you need. Fortunately for us, porns aren’t known for their dialogue, so we didn’t have to worry about anyone messing up their lines.” 

Plastic pollution in the oceans has become perhaps the single most popular cause for brands worldwide over the past year (in the wake of the award-winning “Trash Isles” campaign from 2017). But Katz says the impetus for the new campaign came from more personal experience. 

“The idea was inspired by the experiences of some of our creatives when they went away on spring break earlier this year,” he says. “They were visiting a well-known beach in the U.S. and were genuinely surprised by the amount of trash they saw both on the shore and out in the water.” 

He adds: “People may ignore ‘preachy’ messages even from the coolest brands, but we know there’s one thing that will always capture their attention—sex. … Pornhub, who are quite interested in environmental issues, were really enthusiastic about the idea from the beginning and connected us with Leo and Lulu, who star in the video, in order to make it happen.” 

The process of creating the film was eye-opening, in more ways than one. 

“We travelled to the Caribbean to shoot the video and we were really shocked by what we saw—and that was before we even started to shoot the porn,” Katz says. “We visited places where miles of coastline were covered with literally tons of plastic waste, which was really a sad sight to see. But seeing something like that with our own eyes really brought the issue home. Although we were able to clean up the small beach we shot on, we were assured that it would be covered in trash again within a week, and that makes you realize what an ongoing problem this is.” 

For its part, Ocean Polymers is grateful for the campaign. 

“The initiative and support from Pornhub is inspired and appreciated,” says Heather Wigglesworth, the group’s executive director. “We are all part of the problem and must work together to find solutions. This is a brand with significant global reach spanning all demographics, so it is a very effective platform to raise awareness and support for the crisis we face in our oceans today. It would be great to see more companies of this size and stature taking the same responsibility with the audience they engage.”

For more information on the campaign, visit dirtiestporn.com. To learn more about Ocean Polymers, visit cleanourocean.com. 

“We were discussing with the client about how best to promote the idea, and we started talking about those surf musicals from the ’50s and ’60s,” Officer & Gentleman executive creative director Alex Katz tells Muse of the inspiration for the music. “They had a certain amount of camp and humor that we thought was perfect for talking about what is essentially, although real, a silly problem. From there, our task was coming up with a song that fit into that genre.” 

In writing the song, they needed to hit a few different targets. 

“We knew we needed to create something catchy, but with lyrics that could tell a story that could later be brought to life in a video,” says Katz. “And then of course, there’s the difficulty in creating a real song, not just a jingle, about the product. In the end, we were able to write something that ticked all those boxes without losing that sense of humor and irreverence which is essential for any Pornhub campaign.” 

Baker lives in Spain, and Airbag, who are from Malaga, have been friends of the agency for a while, Katz reveals. 

“Since Airbag is known for their surf pop sound and Kurt had the perfect voice for this kind of song, it was an obvious choice,”he says. “Luckily for us, both were really excited about the project, and we think that comes through in the final song. That’s Kurt speaking in the interludes, by the way.” 

As for the product itself, Officer & Gentleman came up with the idea and designed it from scratch. 

“I can tell you that the trial-and-error process of creating a pair that actually worked in the way it was supposed to was an adventure in an of itself,” says Katz. “Originally, we were brainstorming ideas for spring and summer, and this one just came up—pun very intended. We were thinking about where the brand could fit into a day at the beach, when solving this rather specific, but very real problem.” 

You can listen to the song on Spotify or download it from Bandcamp.

CREDITS

Client: Pornhub
Agency: Officer & Gentleman
Executive Creative Directors: Javi Iñiguez de Onzoño, Alex Katz
Managing Director: José Ortiz
Account Director: Alejandro Fata
Account Executive: Marta Cintero
Project Manager: Beto P. F.
Art Directors: Javier Malluguiza, Luis Álvarez
Copywriters: Emilio Franquelo
Production Company: Mister
Director: Fermín Cimadevilla
Producer: Luis Diguardi
Director of Photography: Iván Caso
Colorist: Nadia Khairat
Art Director: Ulbi Foulkes
Stylist: Maria Gamero
Original Music: Airbag
Original Lyrics: Alex Katz, Javi Iñiguez, Emilio Franquelo, Kurt Baker
“Beach Boner Blues” performed by: Airbag feat. Kurt Baker
Music Production & Mix: Carlos Hernández Nombela
Recorded by: Máximo Ruiz & Manuel Varo