Can you guess which sex toy ads Instagram blocked?
Sexism is all around us, from subway ads to Facebook.
Polly Rodriguez, CEO of the sex toy company Unbound, and Alexandra Fine, CEO of the sex toy company Dame Products, want to stop that, focusing specifically on the advertising industry. They teamed up to fight biased advertising regulations through a creative and informational campaign called Approved, Not Approved.
The main component of the campaign is a quiz, in which users are presented with different ads and must guess which were given the green light by various platforms, including Facebook, Instagram and public transportation bodies. After making a decision, the answer is revealed along with a helpful "learn more" button to shed light on the campaign as well as the rationale behind advertising guidelines.
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The quiz shows ads for erectile dysfunction medication that were approved for the subway, as well as ads for sex toys that were rejected for Facebook and the subway. "By selectively enforcing guidelines, platforms limit your access to solutions, education, and engagement from brands that are trying to make the world a better place for you," the site explains. "We believe that advertisers should allow advertisements for sexual health and wellness products for everyone — not exclusively cis-men, as is currently the case."
Though barely a week old, Rodriguez and Fine have already received some reactions to the quiz.
"It's bringing to life an unseen issue and people are both enjoying the game and surprised to learn about the discriminatory standards," Fine said via email.
Once they receive more responses to the quiz, they plan to compare the public's reaction to the ads with what platforms consider offensive advertising.
On Wednesday, the duo kicked off their awareness campaign with a protest outside of Facebook's headquarters in New York City. Around 50 people joined to rail against the tech giant's advertising rules.
The reactions by passersby to the protest were mostly positive.
"All of the women and non-binary people that walked by were really enthusiastic. We got lots of car honks...the only people that walked by and didn't want to engage tended to be the cis-white men who were in their suits and button-downs," Rodriguez said.
For Rodriguez, this campaign is personal. When she was only 21 years old, she was diagnosed with cancer and went through menopause at an early age. She said she was sick of hearing criticism on Twitter about how erectile dysfunction was a health issue but her vaginal dryness, resulting from her cancer, was not.
What's more, as Business Insider reported in March, Facebook has blocked ads for vaginal dryness in the past while allowing ones for erectile dysfunction medication.
For Rodriguez, the advertising landscape's squeamishness stems from our culture as a whole.
"It really dates back to our puritan foundations," she said.
Fine agrees. "Ad space is prioritized for tools that make sex better for men/people with penises -- but ignores all of the many benefits of tools for women/people with vulvas (they're a tool for low libido, abuse survivors, and cancer patients, to name just a few!)," she explained in an email. "This discounts the importance of advocating for enjoyable, pleasurable sex -- which is something that, unless we learn to discuss openly, will never be common knowledge."
Topics Social Good
Siobhan was the Social Good reporter at Mashable, writing about everything from mental health to race to the climate crisis. Before diving into the world of journalism, she worked in global health — most notably, as a Peace Corps volunteer in Mozambique. Find her at @siobhanneela.
