Sex Toys, Boots and the Daily Mail

The Mysterious Case of the Offensive Sex Toys

Yesterday (Sunday 8^th Jan) the headline (yes, it was the headline because the world is so boring at the moment news-wise) in the Mail on Sunday was “Sex toys for sale at Boots, prominently displayed close to healthcare products in full view of children”.  For international readers of this blog it should be noted that the Mail is in fact the 2^nd most visited newspaper site in the world.  It should also be noted that despite Hewson Group’s regular appearances in the Mail it is not exactly our organ of choice, so to speak.

Anyway, the thing is that the Daily Mail has ‘discovered’ that Boots are selling sex toys and civilization is in danger. In particular, a state of affairs has occurred whereby “Customers have to walk past the sex aids in order to shop for shampoo, deodorants, toothpaste and sandwiches.”  Can you imagine the horror?  I bet that all the lady customers are so traumatized that, as a result, they all involuntarily buy very long tuna baguettes whilst dragging away screaming children who want to stay in the toy department.  Just in case you would like to be scandalized too, then the Mail has helpfully reproduced the offending displays and you can see them here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2083701/Sex-toys-sale-Boots-displayed-near-healthcare-products-view-children.html

It may be as well to mention that the Mail has form here.  Only the previous week it was mightily animated by the Sherlock Holmes  TV drama ‘A Scandal in Belgravia’ which showed some nudity before the 9pm ‘watershed’.  The Mail was unmoved by the fact that: a) this was some of the finest television produced anywhere in the history of broadcasting and b) the nudity was of the half buttock type that can be seen on Skegness beach on a wet Wednesday.  Anyway, you can make up your own mind because you can visit the Mail’s website and see all the offending images. It goes without saying that you should only do this after 9pm.

And our point is?  Well two points actually.  Firstly, the overwhelming majority (it looks 90% plus) of the 500 or so comments on the article support Boots (and these are DM readers) so the ‘backlash’ predicted by the paper looks a bit unlikely.  Secondly, WSS has consistently argued that chemists/drugstores are not the natural places to sell sex toys.  Now, that is not to say that we don’t support Boots 100% (and indeed all the other drugstores that do so).  We think it’s great that they do and we also recognise that in some parts of the world – the USA being an obvious example – the local drugstore maybe the only show in town.  Nevertheless, we can only see the current state of affairs being a substitute market unless drugstores raise their imaginative game.  It’s not where women in WSS research want to shop for erotic goods.  The emotional environment is not right and it’s too close to implications of ‘dysfunction’.  We believe it’s actually do-able for Boots but a re-think of how the area might be designed and merchandised is definitely needed.