Fox Business’s Brian Sullivan interviewed Dave Levine of SexToy.com and AdultShopping.com about a recent press release that claimed the adult industry was seeing a spike in sales due to President Bush’s economic stimulus program, which gave individual taxpayers a stipend of up to $600 depending on their income level and tax burden.
Levine said that although his website, AdultShopping.com, was enjoying increased sales — unrelated to the stimulus checks — the rest of the industry wasn’t so lucky.
“The monthly membership business model and selling DVDs is in a lot of trouble right now,” he said, casting doubt on the legitimacy of the firm that released the report, the Adult Internet Market Research Company. Levine said that the firm’s website had been created only two weeks before. A whois search indicates that the domain was created on June 17.
"Nobody seems to have been consulted in this supposed research," Levine said. "And it looks to be like a fun story/press release used to give some press to the two small companies mentioned in the report."
The original report referred to two paysites owned by the research firm.
Levine has been in the media spotlight this summer, having also given a recent interview to Hustler Magazine in June. The 40-year-old businessman launched the first affiliate program for sex toys back in 1996 and has since expanded his empire to include wholesale drop shipping services.
Levine said he spoke with Hustler because he wanted to give people his take on the industry.
“Being in Hustler gave me the opportunity to show readers what it’s really like to live this kind of lifestyle,” Levine said. “ I think my story will influence people that anything is possible.”
