CYBERSPACE — Swedish pleasure products company LELO has partnered up with semi-retired adult performer Stoya for a clever Instagram ad that sidesteps parent company Facebook’s notorious anti-sex censorship practices.
Stoya’s sponsored post, clearly labeled as a partnership with the sleek adult product manufacturer, mostly shows the striking face of the fully clothed brunette.
The 1:12-minute ad begins with Stoya playfully applying the LELO Sona Cruise vibrator to her tongue while subtitles clarify the ad copy she’s reading. Then it cuts to a blue-tinted set of images of Stoya playing with the word “Science” interspersed with nature shots and statistics about male and female masturbation.
Other shots include the LELO Sona Cruise laying next to a peach and an eggplant, Stoya blowing smoke and a voiceover of a spaceship countdown to blast-off.
Nobody said Instagram ads had to be subtle — just no female nipples or too much skin or actual references of literal sex. The 2019 internet, apparently, in its coy fruit-and-rockets metaphors, is more similar to 1950s Hollywood — when Hitchcock would famously cut from a couple making out to a train going into a tunnel — than to the utopia of sexual expression we were promised.
Congratulations then to both LELO and Stoya for a progressive, playful way to sidestep the absurd intricacies of Instagram and Facebook censorship.
To watch Stoya's ad for the LELO Sona Cruise, visit her Instagram.
