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Fifty Shades whips up sales at Danish sex shops

Whips, blindfolds and anal beads are selling like hotcakes in the nation's sex shops in the run-up to the highly-anticipated film adaptation of Fifty Shades of Grey.

Published: 10 February 2015 08:15 CET
Fifty Shades whips up sales at Danish sex shops
Fifty Shades of Grey is fueling a boom in sex toy sales and sado-masochistic accessories. Photo: Jewel Samad/AFP/Scanpix
When the 100 million-selling erotic trilogy Fifty Shades of Grey hits Danish theatres on Thursday, it won’t just be cinemas that cash in on the books' massive popularity. 
 
Sex shops throughout Denmark are reporting a boost in sales in sex toys inspired by the Fifty Shades books and feature film adaptation. 
 
Shops in Copenhagen and Aarhus are stocking up on both sex toys and manpower to meet the demand of Danes who want to replicate the antics of Anastasia Steele and Christian Grey.
 
 
“We’ve purchased double the amount of erotic accessories in the more kinky area. It’s primarily blindfolds, whips and anal sex toys – for example the slightly less elegant butt plugs – that customers are demanding,” Sabina Elvstram-Johns, the owner of the Copenhagen sex shop Lust, told public broadcaster DR. 
 
Elvstram-Johns said that ever since the first Fifty Shades book was released in Denmark in 2012, there has been a growing interest in more adventurous sex. 
 
“We have expanded our customer base ever since. I can tell that Mr. and Mrs. Denmark now want to experiment with their wild side,” she said. 
 
The same can be said in Aarhus, where the sex toy company Sinful.dk has been having great success selling whips, anal beads and lubricants bearing the Fifty Shades brand.
 
“Already before the books were released we sold a lot of their products. It was crazy. You can compare it to the release of a new Disney film, when all the kids want the newest merchandise. Here it’s the same, but with adults,” Mathilde Mackowski, the owner of Sinful.dk, told Aarhus Stiftstidende. 
 
Mackowski said that her online sex shop, which also services Sweden and Norway, will hire extra employees in its warehouse and add weekend shifts to help meet customer demand. 
 
Speaking to DR, Mackowski predicted that the officially-branded sex merchandise will continue to grow after the Fifty Shades film hits theatres and helps to further normalize sexual practices that were once considered kinky and shameful. 
 
“Just the fact that we talk about it and dare to sit on the train or in the plane and show that we are reading Fifty Shades of Grey is removing the tabu around this kind of sex and is making it more normal,” she said. 
 
You can see the trailer for the Fifty Shades of Grey film here: 

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HEALTH

IN PICTURES: 7 of the French government’s sexiest public health adverts

An advertising campaign aimed at convincing young people to get the Covid vaccine has attracted international attention, but it’s not the first time that French authorities have sexed up their public health messaging.

Published: 8 July 2021 17:22 CEST
Updated: 11 July 2021 12:16 CEST
IN PICTURES: 7 of the French government's sexiest public health adverts
Image: AIDES.

It’s an international cliché that France is the land of l’amour – or at least the land of le sexe – and that reputation does seem to be justified, given how often French public health bodies have turned to sex in an attempt to get their message across.

From the suggestive to the downright scandalous, here are seven examples of health campaigns which relied on that oh so French fondness for romance.

Get vaccinated, get laid

The Covid campaign in question was created by regional health authorities in the southern Provence-Alpes-Côtes d’Azur region.

The poster which has got people hot under the collar features two very attractive and very French-looking people kissing, seemingly in the back of a cab after a night on the town. “Yes, the vaccine can have desirable effects,” it says.

The campaign has proved so popular that it will soon be expanded.

Promoting road safety

Earlier this year, the French Road Safety Delegation released a video ahead of Valentine’s Day, which showed a couple sharing an intimate moment in the bedroom.

The full 30-second video featured the slogan, “Life is better than one last drink for the road”.

Another image of two people kissing, seemingly without clothes, included the line, “Life, love. On the road, don’t forget what truly matters.”

Fight against HIV/AIDS

While the link between road safety and sex isn’t immediately obvious, less surprising are the references to intimacy in the health ministry’s HIV awareness campaign from 2016.

Each of the different posters shows two men embracing. Straplines include, “With a lover, with a friend, with a stranger. Situations vary, and so do the protective measures.”

The posters shocked conservative sensibilities, and several right-wing mayors asked for them to be taken down in their towns. 

HIV awareness campaign

Just a few days after the controversy over the ministry’s posters ignited, the non-profit AIDES launched its own campaign, and it didn’t hold back.

The posters showed scuba instructors, piano teachers and parachutists, all of them naked alongside their students. The slogan: “People undergoing treatment for HIV have a lot of things to pass onto us. But the AIDS virus isn’t one.”

“Even if we’ve been spreading this information since 2008, we realise that a lot of people don’t know that antiviral treatments prevent spreading,” head of AIDES Aurélien Beaucamp told France Info.

“People are still afraid of those who are HIV-positive.” 

Government-mandated pornography

It’s common for sexualised advertising campaigns to be labelled pornographic by critics, but in 1998, the French government went a step further and created actual pornography.

READ ALSO Language of love – 15 of the best romantic French phrases

The health ministry commissioned TV station Canal Plus to create five short erotic films to encourage the use of condoms and prevent the spread of HIV. The campaign featured up-and-coming directors such as Cedric Klapisch and Gaspar Noé.

“The only possible way to look at, to get people to protect themselves, is to show, show everything, show simply and without creating an obsession of the sexual act and the act of wearing a condom,” Klapisch said, according to an Associated Press story published at the time. 

You didn’t really think we’d include images of this one, did you? (OK, here’s a link for those who are curious).

A controversial anti-smoking campaign

https://twitter.com/MarketainmentSE/status/212863393143586817

It’s time to forget what we said about romance, because there is nothing romantic about this 2010 campaign from the Droits des Non-Fumeurs (Non-smokers’ rights) association and the BDDP & Fils communications agency.

The campaign featured several images of young people with a cigarette in their mouths, looking up at an adult man who rested his hand on their heads. The cigarette appeared to be coming out of the man’s trousers.

The slogan said, “Smoking means being a slave to tobacco”. The association said the sexual imagery was meant to get the attention of young people who were desensitised to traditional anti-smoking messages, but the posters caused outrage, with members of the government publicly criticising the choice of imagery.

Celebrating LGBTQ+ love

On the other end of the spectrum is this very romantic video from the national health agency Santé Publique France. It was released on May 17th 2021, the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia, and was part of a campaign against anti-LGBT discrimination and violence. It is set to Jean-Claude Pascal’s Nous les amoureux

Showing a diverse range of couples kissing, holding hands, and healing each other’s wounds, the video ends on the word play: “In the face of intolerance, it’s up to us to make the difference.”

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