And so, dear readers, to the bedroom/bathroom/living room/car park/photocopier room, where it seems Durex is aiming to get the world and his wife/husband/lover/partner/pub mate/colleague/casual encounter to sample the delights of its Pleasure Gels lube collection.
Devised by Havas London, Foreplay Forever is running across multiple European markets and aims to normalise lube usage for pleasure – not just for problems – while simultaneously busting the myth that only penetrative sex is good sex.
You see, apparently two-thirds of sexually active adults don’t use lubes, with the most common reason being a belief they don’t need to. Yet despite the fact lube is viewed by the majority as a solution to a problem, not as something that enhances pleasure, sexual satisfaction is higher among those who use it, according to Durex at least.
This, coupled with some study which claims that 70% of people have tried to improve their sex lives, has led Durex to reprise the message “Sex feels better with lube”, first introduced earlier this year in its “Ladies, Let’s Lube” campaign.
Foreplay Forever centres around a playful TV spot depicting a couple caught in a never-ending loop of foreplay passion. Each time, they grab a different lube from Durex’s Pleasure Gels range, including massage, warming, flavoured and tingling varieties; each time, the scene glitches and the couple end up back where they started, bemused, slightly flustered, but excited to do it again, apparently.
Reflecting the different experiences provided by the different lube variants, the film ends with the line: “With so many new sensations to try, you’ll never want to finish getting started.”
Directed by Simon Cahn through Pulse Films, the campaign launches on TV across Spain, Portugal, Russia, Poland, Italy, Hungary, Germany, Austria and Switzerland, and is supported by an extensive range of digital and paid social activity. No clue as to when it will hit UK screens though.
Durex marketing director in Spain Domenika Praxmarer said: “At Durex, we know sexual satisfaction is higher for those who use lubes. Despite this, a certain stigma persists around the category – which is why we’re seeking to attract a new, younger audience, both single and in relationships, who haven’t used or considered lubes before; 25-34-year-olds who are confident and comfortable in their sexual preferences, but open-minded and optimistic that their sex life could always get better. And with our Pleasure Gels range designed for extra stimulation during foreplay, it felt like a great area for this campaign to play in.”
Havas London creative director Lynsey Atkin added: “This work is about dragging flavoured (and tingling, and lots of other things) lubes out of the dusty drawer of ‘let’s-spice-things-up-shall-we-dear?’ and reminding people of what they actually do – make sex better. As every advice column will tell you, foreplay can be the most fun part, so we wanted to heighten this and make a film about what it might feel like for it to be so good, you wanted to do it over and over again. Like a sexy Groundhog Day.”
So, what is the consensus around the Decision Marketing office? Will we be rushing to the shops to “lube up” tonight? If so, will we tell anyone in the morning? More importantly, will it lure in the target market of 25-to 34-year-olds, who are confident and comfortable in their sexual preferences, but open-minded and optimistic that their sex life could always get better?
Who knows? Mind you, they have made a decent fist of it (and you’ll definitely need lube for that) so it gets our vote. Whether we’ll be lubing up, however, remains to be seen as a quick straw poll round the office shows that those who have tried Pleasure Gels end up in a very annoying sticky mess. Still, each to their own…
Decision Marketing Adometer: 7 out of 10
