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Honey and Carrots

When the overall economic climate has been so miserable for so long it’s easy to forget that there are some firms which are not just surviving but actively thriving. A fine example is Lovehoney, where I spent an enjoyable afternoon last month talking business with the owners. The resulting feature is on page 26 of the May issue of ETO and it should make very interesting reading for anyone in the adult market – and some will find it particularly interesting.

On another subject, last month I witnessed first-hand what impact an editorial mention in ETO can have. The news story on page 8 of ETO issue 100 [Pat Carrot targets supermarket sales] was, as I’m sure the vast majority of readers realised, an April Fool. The subject itself was silly (a Norwegian firm growing carrots in the shape of sex toys) and the details even more so (they were to be sold to retailers by weight, rather than as individual units; consumers were to be encouraged to use an apple corer to carve out a hollow in the base to insert a bullet vibe; and the shelf life was estimated to be ten days). Also, the names used were all anagrams: the company representative was Olaf Prilo (April Fool), the company name was Learton (not real) and it was based at Latal (at all).

And yet – Olaf did receive a response via his specially set up gmail account. There were intrigued bloggers requesting samples and he even attracted the attention of a mainstream PR firm who had seen the story and would “love to talk to you about promotion in the UK”. The PR firm cited a number of major names it had ran EMEA campaigns for and it also claimed to have huge experience of adult. Our contact said: “I KNOW we can run a successful media campaign for you.”

I won’t embarrass anyone by naming names but if next month’s issue of ETO has a different editor you will know why – I’ll be seeking my fortune growing carrots in Norway.