LOS ANGELES, CA — The ad is simple. A wrinkled sheet of yellow, lined paper. A handwritten letter from Sandy Carlson, a real, live Stockroom.com customer. Or, in this case, ex-customer. “Please don’t send me anymore sales brocures or catalogues as I am going back to church and won’t need anything further,” it reads, ignoring its writer’s obvious need for a spelling and punctuation lesson, regardless of her other needs.Carlson’s letter is one of a baker’s dozen that will appear in the pages of wildly irreverent humor newspaper, The Onion. Known for its exceptional customer service abilities and friendly, informed staff, the online sex toy pioneer is taking its message of fun and edgy sex to a publication that’s just as fun and edgy, but with a wonderfully mainstream readership eager for clever novelty.
In a newspaper known for making up amazing stuff that often seems more than slightly plausible, what sets the Stockroom.com ad campaign apart is that its reality is stranger than fiction approach is just that: real. Well, except for the customer names and handwriting, both of which have been changed to protect the identities of those returning to innocence or otherwise baring their souls.
“The Onion is not an ordinary paper,” marketing director Juli Crockett points out, “as the Stockroom is not an ordinary sex toy company. We wanted to do something extraordinary that reflected the humanity and humor that makes both The Onion and the Stockroom such delightful companies to experience as a consumer, and as a business partner.”
According to Crockett, the company receives customer letters on a regular basis, “some very tender and some just plain giddy, expressing their gratitude for what we do. This business really is about one-to-one relationships, and this campaign will prove that.”
In spite of stepped up efforts by the government to legislate some of the American citizenry’s most private decisions, Stockroom.com has been able to expand both its product base and its marketing venues, providing Hollywood with exceptional latex and leather costumes and becoming active in social networking sites such as MySpace.com.
“By continuing to do what we do, and do it well, we wage a joyful, aesthetic war against this kind of political provincialism,” Crockett explains. “The Onion leads the fray, and we are proud to become an advertising supporter. And, besides, sometimes sex is a funny thing. We have to keep a sense of humor in this business.”
