 | | | | Once, at a dinner party that I was invited to for absolutely no reason I can discern, I was seated across from a very powerful person in the media industry. The dinner party was sponsored by a sex toy company, and they had made centerpieces of their travel-size vibrators and patented super-thin condoms. Halfway through the first course, the powerful person reached over, picked up a pale pink vibrator the size of a tube of mascara, turned it on, and put it on the soft skin under his eye, holding it there while he continued his conversation. "This is good for the bags under your eyes," he explained after maybe two and a half minutes of not bothering to explain. I seethed with envy, honestly, toward a person so elegant. I also loved and envied Rebecca Jennings's piece this week on minimalist sex toys, which are designed for Instagram even though most people who buy them are not going to put them on Instagram. The creators of "the Glossier of sex toys" and "the Everlane of sex toys" are making these things sleek and muted because it's trendy, but also so that they can maybe put their ads in public — it's a delicate dance! Someday, the sex toy taboo will erode to the point where everyone can treat their undereye bags at the dinner table. —Kaitlyn Tiffany, reporter for The Goods | | | | | | | | | | | The rise of the Instagram-friendly vibrator | | | |  | | Dame | | For a few months in the late '90s, women all over the US went to their local sex shops — many for the very first time — for the express purpose of buying a single item. It was a vibrator called the Rabbit by Vibratex, a company that at the time was wholly unaware of its sudden popularity. The reason? An episode of Sex and the City in which Charlotte, the most old-fashioned and conservative of the show's four protagonists, becomes absolutely obsessed with one. "I thought it would be all scary and weird, but it isn't!" she exclaims upon seeing the vibrator for the first time. "It's pink — for girls!" That episode played a huge part in bringing vibrators into the mainstream, and in the two decades since, they've become just another item in people's nightstands: not necessarily indicative of someone who's particularly lonely, or particularly kinky. But there's a shift happening right now that's similar to the watershed episode of Sex and the City, and it's not because we're seeing sex toys on TV. It's because we're seeing them on Instagram. We now have "the Everlane of vibrators" (Maude), "the Glossier of vibrators" (Dame), and the vibrators that are actually minimalist necklaces (Crave, Unbound), all of which have adopted the sort of Instagram aesthetic that could exist within any women-focused wellness or beauty brand: cheeky feminist phrases on pastel backgrounds, sad girl meme collages, artsy photos of stomach rolls, and, of course, disembodied hands — except instead of holding a turmeric latte or eyebrow gel, they're holding a vibrator. This has caused a few complications for sex tech brands that use it for marketing, and for Instagram itself, which is still squeamish about sex stuff on its app (more on that later), but there's also the other implied question: Why do we need our vibrators — objects that presumably a small number of people will ever see — to be optimized for Instagram? | | Read the rest of the story >> | | | | | | The latest Instagram influencer frontier? Medical promotions. | | | |  | | Sarah Lawrence/Vox | | Louise Roe has denim that's ripped in all the right places, a bikini-ready body year-round, a husband and baby who look like they were picked from a catalog, and 698,000 Instagram followers. She also has the skin condition psoriasis, a chronic autoimmune disease defined by flaky, inflamed red or white patches of skin, and she wants you to know all about it. Actually, she needs to tell you about her psoriasis on Instagram; otherwise, her paid partnership with Celgene, a biotechnology company that produces the patent-protected psoriasis medication Otezla, would presumably be canceled. In recent years, businesses have adapted their advertising strategies to the rise in social media use, specifically on Instagram. The app is one of the most popular social networks, surpassed only by its parent company, Facebook, and is projected to have more than 111 million users in 2019 — more than half of whom are between ages 18 and 29. The high level of Instagram user engagement gives companies an opportunity to capitalize on users with thousands of followers, aptly dubbed "influencers," through paid advertising partnerships. These Instagram ads, for which influencers can be paid an estimated $1,000 per 100,000 followers, are selling not just a product but an entire lifestyle. Rather than buying a single-page ad or a minute-long TV or radio spot, companies benefit from the candor and storytelling on influencers' feeds. However, selling a pair of shoes or luggage as part of a lifestyle is far different from selling pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and other health-related products. Nevertheless, pharmaceutical and biotech companies and Silicon Valley health startups see the opportunity Instagram presents and are increasingly using influencer advertising as a way to increase their bottom lines. | | Read the rest of the story >> | | | | | | More good stuff to read today | | | | | | |
No comments:
Post a Comment