In this week’s Alert Me: Fifty Shades consumer products go not-so-wild, Ann Summers hits our screens, and sex toys from printers.

 

Fifty Shades of a bawdy board game
Source: Evening Standard

I actually have no words. A Fifty Shades of Grey boardgame with ‘Inner Goddess Tokens’ a ‘Red Room Expansion Pack’ and a non-disclosure agreement between the players and Christian Grey (otherwise know as the ‘Receiving Party’).

As someone who spent nearly a decade protecting the integrity of a rather high-profile brand that shall remain nameless, this kind of cash-in merchandising actually makes me feel slightly ill. Worse, if Susannah Butter’s article is anything to go by, those who fork over their hard-earned cash for this thing aren’t even going to be rewarded with anything particularly titillating or racy. Sample question:

 

“Which girlfriend would buy the best present for the man who had everything?”

 

No joke, I can’t decide whether to laugh or cry. Really E.L. James? Really? Stick with Monopoly, people. I guarantee fighting over who gets to be the boot will be more fun.

 

British sex toy shop makes post-watershed Christmas ads
Source: B&T

Now this is interesting. Adverts for sex toys on British television are almost unheard of. I recall Lovehoney doing one a while back but I don’t recall it being quite as titillating as this Christmas offering from High Street giant Ann Summers. Content-wise, it’s hardly explicit but the censors have deemed that it can only be shown after 11.00pm (although there is an edited version that we’ll be allowed to see from the earlier time of nine o’clock – PM, not AM).

 

 

Does this signal that, as a society, we’re becoming more accepting of sex toy advertisements in mainstream media?

 

Your next sex toy could come out of a 3D printer (NSFW)
Source: io9

I’m married to an engineer. And when he reads this article, the first thing out of his mouth is going to be ‘what did I tell you?’.  We’ve both been aware of 3D printing for some time and have often debated when and how the sex toy industry would begin to embrace the technology. The possibilities are endless (custom shapes, custom sizes, custom colours, etc.) but as this article points out, the resolutions, materials and costs are quite a way from being perfect just yet. It’s only a matter of time, though, and I think we’re going to see a lot more bespoke toys being manufactured in this way in the years to come. This is a great piece to geek out and dream to!

 

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