There are certain acronyms that carry with them the reassuring weight of weekend competence — the drill bit properly seated, the shelf level at last, the satisfaction of having done it oneself. D.I.Y. is one of them.
Lovehoney, the British purveyor of intimate products, is now borrowing that phrase for purposes its original coiners almost certainly did not anticipate. The company has dispatched a mobile advertising van around the Wembley area bearing the message "We've always been big fans of D.I.Y." — parking it, with what must be described as deliberate timing, outside home improvement retailers including B&Q, Screwfix, Selco and Ikea.
The occasion is Masturbation May, which is apparently a thing. (One learns something new in this business with some regularity, though not always something one expected to learn.)
The campaign, which Lovehoney says will run throughout the month, represents the latest effort by the sexual wellness category to normalize its subject matter through the borrowed language of the everyday. Where once such products were advertised — if at all — in the back pages of certain magazines, they now roll through suburban parking lots on the sides of vans, cheerfully appropriating the vocabulary of the hardware store.
Lovehoney indicated that the outdoor effort would be accompanied by messaging on its own site, and that it would present a houseplant installation at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show next week. The connection between houseplants and the campaign's theme was not immediately made clear, though the company has shown a consistent willingness to let viewers make their own associations.
For the home improvement chains whose storefronts served as backdrops, the proximity was presumably unsolicited.
Original story published in The Drum: "Lovehoney puts self-pleasure in the DIY aisle for Masturbation May | The Drum"