LAS VEGAS — YouPorn, after hearing news that pleasure products maker Lora DiCarlo’s award at the Consumer Electronics Show for its Osé Robotic Massager was rescinded, has decided to step in with a generous gift — free advertising.
Charlie Hughes, YouPorn’s vice president, sent an open letter saying that ahead of the robotic woman’s sex toy debut next month, the adult site would give Lora DiCarlo $50,000 worth of advertising for a month on the site, according to AdWeek.
“As you know,” Hughes said, “most social media and television platforms don’t accept ads from sexually focused businesses, but we would be proud to promote Osé on YouPorn.”
“The CES board clearly do not appreciate the value of your product, but we are sure their wives would,” Hughes said.
Lora Haddock, Lora DiCarlo’s founder and CEO, wrote an open letter to the conference’s organizers complaining about the sex toy being rescinded.
“There is an obvious double standard when it comes to sexuality and sexual health,” she said. “While there are sex and sexual-health products at CES, it seems that CES/CTA administration applies the rules differently for companies and products based on the gender of their customers.
“Men’s sexuality is allowed to be explicit, with a literal sex robot in the shape of an unrealistically proportioned woman and VR porn in point of pride along the aisle. Female sexuality, on the other hand, is heavily muted if not outright banned.”
Lora DiCarlo’s Osé was to be one of a handful of honorees this week at CES’ robotics and drones Innovation Awards show.
But two week ago, Haddock received word from organizers that the technology trade show had disqualified the device from the awards program and banned the company’s product from the show.
Haddock was told that the Osé didn’t comply with regulations of the show’s and award’s organizer, the Consumer Technology Association, which cited rules saying products that are “immoral, obscene, indecent, profane or not in keeping with CTA’s image will be disqualified.”
The CTA later backtracked and said the product simply didn’t fit in the robotics and drones category.
Groups like the Free Speech Coalition called foul, saying "CES' bias against sexual wellness isn't just unfair and stigmatizing, it's culturally backwards.”
“Their continued fear of sex and sexuality is going to lead them into irrelevance,” the group’s executive director said.