NEW YORK — Pornhub opened a Valentine's pop-up in New York City this week. The store, in Manhattan's SoHo district, debuted yesterday and will serve customers until 9 p.m. this evening.
"[T]he experience is more, dare I say, classy?" said writer Ilyse Liffreing in an article for AdAge.com. "If not classy, then at least tasteful. The space is decorated with soft, feminine touches coupled with classic Valentine’s themes — baby-pink balloons fill the windows, blush-pink curtains hang around the room and red rose bouquets sit on countertops. A neon-pink sign reading 'Love at first site' is positioned above a suede couch, also pink, ready for Instagram-worthy selfies."
Far from being the sex toy shop one might expect, the store instead offers teddy bears in Pornhub T-shirts, racy Valentine's Day greeting cards (sample quote: "I can't take my thighs off of you") and candy boxes.
"The idea was not to make a sex shop," explained Alex Katz, the co-founder and executive creative director of Officer & Gentlemen, the creative agency behind the pop-up. "We don’t have to have everything be about sex. It can be about love. It helps to build the brand. We want people to see the safe-for-work aspect of the brand, too."
Katz explained that the ultimate goal for Pornhub is to turn the site into an adults-only but not necessarily porn-specific lifestyle brand like Playboy.
"People wear Playboy logos and don’t read Playboy," he said. He discussed some of Pornhub's non-adult content, like the videos created by CollegeHumor's Ryan Creamer, who currently has 38,000 followers on his SFW Pornhub page.
Anyone who visits the shop and purchases an item gets a Valentine's gift of their own — a free month of Pornhub Premium.
"For the last several years we have upheld a tradition of offering free Pornhub Premium to everyone on Valentine's Day, and we opened this shop with the intention of being a part of our fans' Valentine's celebrations in more ways than one," said Pornhub VP Corey Price in a statement to AdAge.
Pornhub and Officer & Gentlemen also created a website to promote the pop-up. Creamer, Pornhub brand ambassador Asa Akira and performer Rod Jackson have been participating in a site promotion where fans can make interactive videos with the stars to send to friends.
"The idea here is to be really cute," said Katz about the endeavor. "It’s quite wholesome."