Under Those Snuggies We're All Naked and Lubed, According to Ad Age Recession Coverage
From a single press release shall mighty trend pieces grow! That’s the motto at Ad Age, which took an amusing stat about the growth in sales of personal lubricants and concluded that Americans must be shagging the recession away. Here are their numbers:
First-quarter sales of personal lubricants soared 32% to $41.2 million, according to Information Resources Inc., led almost entirely by continued strength from last year’s launch of Johnson & Johnson’s K-Y Yours & Mine his-and-hers lubricants.
“sexual-enhancement devices” … up 74% to $10.1 million for the full year ended April 19, according to IRI, with Church & Dwight’s Trojan and Durex products leading the way.
Age leads with, “The recession hasn’t taken any edge off the sexual-accessories trade …”
Readers will remember that back in January, according to Age, frightened Americans were reacting to the recession by hiding underneath their Snuggies and refusing to buy toilet paper.
Put the two trend stories together and here’s the logical takeaway: Being poor, wearing a giant muu-muu and not wiping your butt makes you super horny.
Who knew?
Jim Edwards, a former managing editor of Adweek, has covered drug marketing at Brandweek for four years, and is a former Knight-Bagehot fellow at Columbia University's business and journalism schools. Follow him on Twitter or send him an email.
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