‘Obviously we can’t show a dildo on TV’: How Lovehoney satisfied itself and the censors

The campaign’s launch film, shot in a popular Glaswegian coffee shop, follows a young couple wrapped in each other’s arms as they go about their day. The brand’s head of marketing, Nora Lahl, explains that Lovehoney needed to get back to “growth mode” after a testing year, which she says was felt by many brands across various sectors. The strategic arm of the brand found that, actually, Lovehoney had strong awareness among consumers, but there wasn’t a core platform they could tie the marketing to.

“In isolation, within each channel, we were doing a very good job,” Lahl stresses. “We were missing that creative red thread that connects everything together. Simply put, I hope that ‘Feel the Lovehoney’ is our version of Nike’s Just Do It.’ That’s my big, bold ambition.”

Overall, Lovehoney is known for its cheeky take on advertising, which is something the team at Leith wanted to lean into. The agency’s Marion Miranda worked as the lead copywriter on the project and feels it wasn’t so much “recreating” the brand’s positioning but enhancing the already “strong” tone of voice that customers see across various touchpoints, such as Instagram. “It’s already full of humor and charm and it’s not explicit. So, working around censorship was quite easy because we were not saying anything explicit in the first place,” she explains. “We decided to look into what it is about Lovehoney that satisfies its customers. You know, the obvious thing is that it satisfies them sexually, but with that comes happiness and confidence and a closer relationship to your partner. So, it felt like a very rich territory.”

Lahl adds that Lovehoney felt Leith was the right choice for the brand due to its rich history working with brands that also navigate advertising restrictions, such as in the alcohol or medical sectors. “It came up with something simple yet so powerful,” she adds. “We really tried to work with the restrictions instead of pushing boundaries here and there.”

In the past, Lovehoney has been extremely vocal about discrepancies in advertising restrictions and how, often, these can be rooted in sexism. It has also fought against ‘shadowbanning’ and taken on huge players in the tech field, such as Google and Meta, attempting to hold the platforms accountable.

“It’s at a point where we have found a really good rhythm working with those restrictions and we’re making it work somehow,” Lahl says. “We still want to push boundaries and, obviously, we want to protect everyone who should be protected from certain products. We don’t want anyone in danger. But there are certain things that are very obviously unfair.”

One hurdle has been trying to get approval on the outdoor aspects of this campaign. According to Lahl, the UK and Australia, in particular, are quite strict. “It was very challenging to get any out-of-home approved from Transport for London. So now, when we work on the next campaign, we want to sit down and talk to them,” the marketer explains, stating that there have been some inconsistencies as to what is deemed appropriate for outdoor ads across different brands.

Miranda explains that bringing in ad regulation bodies such as Clearcast throughout the entire process saves a lot of headaches. “We had regular check-ins with them. We would run past our scripts and our storyboards and even our first edits with them,” she notes. “It was all about working with them rather than against them, because it would just make things easier. There were certain points where we tried to push things a little bit, like try to add in our products and then they would say, ‘No, you have to take it out.’ But we always try to push at each level. But in the end, the bigger brand platform didn’t rely on showing products because it’s about the feeling.”

For example, showing the packaging of a product is something that Lovehoney is always pushing. “Because obviously we cannot show dildo on TV in the UK,” says Lahl. “Also, not sure if we should.”

Lovehoney will be launching the brand platform in the US on a state-by-state basis. Lahl says that regulations there are a little easier and “not as heavily regulated” as people may think. “We’re an extremely data-driven company,” she continues. “The US is a gigantic market and we don’t want to spend millions, so we’re taking it more from a state-by-state point of view, testing in different regions, conducting geo testing, geo targeting, finding out what is the impact of the brand in those areas, to see where we can confidently lean into more and potentially find a bigger spend going forward.”

For now, the new campaign is rolling out in the UK across TV, digital and social nationwide. “With the macroeconomic situation in the US at the moment, you know, we’ve just come out of this very tough tariff climate, so we’re really trying to make it work with the volatility in the market,” the marketer explains. “So, we’re cautious, but we want to become a little bit bold over the coming months.”

In terms of competitors, of course there’s the predictable answer of Anne Summers in the UK, but Amazon is also a huge rival for Lovehoney. “With this platform, we wanted to stay true to the category we are in – cheeky, playful, just a teeny, tiny touch of sexy – but we also want to keep entering the mainstream market,” Lahl says.