PornHub's "SFW" billboard removed from Times Square

PornHub, the internet sexual content provider recently known for dabbling in music, managed to score an earned media hit by getting their new billboard forcibly removed from Times Square, NYC, within 24 hours.

Gothamist writes, "though an advertisement for a porn site would have fit in on 42nd Street a mere 20 or so years ago, the city's long since swapped out the peep shows for a Ripley's Believe It Or Not, and sadly, Pornhub's billboard was removed only hours after its first appearance. We can't have anything fun anymore."

Apparently, a neighbouring hotel managed to get the billboard yanked (so to speak).

Seems like a silly controversy to me, considering competing porn site Brazzers had a rather saucy "get rubber" billboard up there four years ago, complete with sexualized models.

You could say that the PornHub billboard was promoting even safer sex... at least for the viewer.

"#Titcoins" is someone's bad spec idea, right?

Titcoins by Pornhub from Javi Iñiguez de Onzoño on Vimeo.

When this video first made the rounds last week, I filed it under "someone's idea of clever spec work" and kind of forgot about it. Not even worth a comment. Or so I first thought.

After all, PornHub is already in-market internationally with the crowdsourced "SFW advertising contest" which is much more clever than this. But since the mostly-male creative class in global advertising wants to do work that is even more sexist than the stuff that's already out there, we keep getting things like this:

I'm not convinced that PornHub had anything to do with this "ad". The post on Ads Of The World gives credit to a Spanish digital agency called La Despensa, which has a number of known brands in its portfolio. But did anyone at PornHub sign a contract, make an approval, or place this on any media?

Not that they're paragons of virtue. I just can't see them thinking this was a worthwhile regional campaign.

Much more interesting, to me however, is the commentary showing up on the AOTW post:

This is not a place in which I am used to seeing a lot of sensitivity. Is #YesAllWomen even reaching the hardened hearts and burned-out souls of advertising enthusiasts?

Please, say it is so.

Was this ad with an affectionate old couple banned from the Super Bowl because it was for Pornhub?

[video yanked by YouTube, but you can still view it here]

That's what Pornhub claims, anyway. But then again, getting a Super Bowl ad rejected is much better publicity than actually paying $4 million for a 30-second spot. On the YouTube link, Pornhub writes: This was the Super Bowl commercial that was rejected by CBS. What do you think - should it have been rejected? Visit this page to vote Yes or No (link is Safe For Work): http://www.pornhub.com/event/superbowl The page is, in fact, "SFW," but that won't help you explain what you were doing at the pornhub.com domain. My wife knows I have to walk through bad internet neighbourhoods in the name of adblogging, so I'll take one for the team. This is what you get when you click:

As Jezebel's Lindy West writes:

This isn't a particularly interesting ad and I don't really give a care about PornHub (and, yes, obv I know I'm dumping free advertising on them exactly according to their plan), BUT. I love crap like this. Rigging the system! It's like strapping a Game Genie on SOCIETY! Now do it again, only make a commercial that actually entertains me. GO.

Yup.