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PETA goes Dot XXX

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PETA has long had provocative imagery in their ads. Many people have criticized them for exploiting women in their promotion of animal rights. But they are taking their nakedness to a new level. PETA is launching their own .XXX site. Though they might not be aware of the controversy in the adult industry regarding this TLD, they are definitely not only preventing anyone else from using their branded (and trademarked) URL, but they are capitalizing on it.

I am sure this will come as a mild surprise to many people. Though if you have really paid attention to their marketing campaigns, it is not a big leap. Of course, if you paid attention to their marketing campaigns, anyone who was looking to capitalize on a big name .xxx left unclaimed after the “sunset” period for trademarked URL registration, would not have had to think hard to come up with a PETA knock of porn site.

PETA is aware that this is a controversial move, but they have been in the center of controversy since they started their nude anti-fur and nude anti-meat ads.

Here are some ads that a few well known porn stars have already been featured in. Will the new site open a new more mainstream modeling opportunity for adult stars?

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Xbiz awards, no props to tweets

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Muscle Barbie dressed like a school girl writing on a chalk board

Friday Feature Photo: The beautiful, and very fit, Muscle Barbie

During Wednesday night’s Xbiz Award show, Twitter was flooded with pics and commentary from the red carpet.  Stars posted tweets ranging from getting ready for the event to comments on the happenings.  The next day’s tweets were even more overwhelming.  All the photos that were taken started flooding the twitterverse.  More comments and talk about the previous night’s activities were the trending topic for adult tweets. Though Twitter gave a nod to Xbiz, Xbiz did not give a nod to Twitter.

First thing Thursday morning the list of winners was posted. Those of us who were not yet in the know ran to the site to see who won awards.  Consummate tech geek that I am, I checked the tech section first.  I am curious to see who won best website and best web services, but I am more interested in the topics.  As the internet plays a deeper and more integral role in porn (reaffirmed by Pink Visual launching their cloud site), the categories for Web/Tech are becoming more significant.

Sadly, there was no category for social media. No category for Twitter. No category for innovative social media networks. Nada.  I am sure organizations like Adult Talent Registry would like a chance for recognition. What about twitter campaigns that companies like Adult Trading Card Company have launched? It is unusual to be on social media and not have heard their names.  Then you have the tweet aggregating powerhouse, Pornstar Tweets. And who is kidding who here, the porn stars would love a chance to get some recognition for their tweeting prowess!

So although the Xbiz awards did not recognize the social media muscle that the adult industry is flexing, efforts are not going unnoticed.

Congratulations to all the winners of real categories from Xbiz. Maybe I should create my own social media porn award. What do you think?

Feature Photo Friday: I met Wendy Rider, aka. Muscle Barbie, on Twitter.  I saw one of the pictures she posted and was blown away. Not only is she beautiful, but she is fabulously fit!   She is a WBFF Pro Figure competitor, Playboy model, International Fitness Model, and personal trainer. Yup, she is the whole package.  Her site is not only pictures and cam, you can get live fitness training from Ms. Muscle Barbie herself!

Check out her website: www.musclebarbie.com

Follow her on Twitter: @musclebarbie

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What is the Next Big Trend in Porn? (part 1)

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Now that the dust is settling from the Adult Entertainment Expo (AEE) and the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), people are asking what is the next big trend in porn?  CES and AEE happening at the same time is more than just a ploy to get geeks to mingle with porn stars. Porn has traditionally been on the cutting edge of technology.  We are the early adapters and often the trend setters and influencers of the adoption of new tech.  Porn is the reason VHS won over Beta. That seems like decades ago…well, it was decades ago, but it was a technology that had a lasting impact on the movie industry as a whole, as well as personal video and home electronics.

The first trend: Mobile

The next trends in porn are mobile apps and engagement.  Porn has been blackballed from mobile apps on iPhone and iPad, but porn is like sand from the beach. It is everywhere and no matter what you do to try to get rid of it, you will always find it hiding somewhere. Many of the new apps meant for mainstream media have porn sneaking in and accessing it.The goal of mobile is to make porn consumable from any platform. “The eventuality of DVDs going away is something that’s scaring lots of companies,” says Farley Cahen, chief operating officer of Digital Playground. The industry needs to adapt to stay viable.  With free porn on the rise and DVDs sliding, porn needs to step up its game if quality legal porn is going to stay viable.  Mobile is the answer to this.  Sites like Jessejane.com have a “sniffer” code on their site that detects when someone is on an iOS and optimizes the content, including video, to play on that device. Pink Visual used a different business model that created their primary revenue stream from wireless and internet, while using DVD as their secondary stream.  This is positioning them ahead of the curve on the transition away from DVDs.Hotels are reporting a loss of income from rentals because people are accessing porn from their phones and iPads.Despite Apple’s refusal to allow porn on its devices, porn apps are focused on the iPhone market.  Most are developed specifically for the iPhone. With the news about Verizon releasing their own iPhone on February 10th, the market for iPhone porn apps will grow by about 2 million over night.One of the big benefits of mobile apps is that they are not limited to video.  Mobile can mean video, phone calls, video calls, turning your phone into a vibrator, interactive games and more.  It is allowing the porn experience to be more thorough and comprehensive.  Though the phones might not give you 3D porn, it can give you a 3D experience.On Wednesday, see part 2 of the next big trend in porn!

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RTA – Get it? Got it? Good!

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RTA label

Recently the ASACP released their “Social Media Best Practices“. It is extremely important to keep children away from age inappropriate websites. The ASACP makes that much easier with the RTA Label.  The RTA label is a free label that identifies a site as being unsuitable for children. Not only does it identify your site, but it shows that you have done due diligence to protect children and it will help your SEO (search engine optimization) ranking.

How RTA works:

RTA means “Restricted to Adults”.  When you put the RTA label on your site you are embedding code in the header of every page that tells child protection monitoring systems that this site has adult content and it will allow the site to be automatically filtered. By alerting the plugin, your browser will not let a child go to that site.  Most browsers have safe surfing options built into their security options. There are also tool bars, plugins and widgets you can use for further security.

Why use RTA?

RTA is important to help prevent children from accessing adult sites.

RTA is also beneficial from an SEO perspective. When you use the label, you have to verify that you have properly installed it on your site.  The ASACP spiders your site to make sure that every page has the label, to prevent any accidental entry by a child.  The site is then checked to make sure that there is no content or text that would indicate child pornography or exploitation.  Once the site has been verified it will be approved.

The RTA is approval is excellent for SEO.  Getting good SEO ranking in search engines is notoriously difficult. However the ASACP has been working with the search engines to garner better search results for sites that use RTA.

Adult Entertainment supports RTA

In the adult entertainment industry we have a responsibility to make sure that our children are not exposed to inappropriate material. Adult entertainment is meant for adults over 18.  These types of images, content, videos, audio and chat rooms need to be restricted.  Parents have a responsibility to make sure that their children are surfing the net safely. But the industry also has a responsibility to make sure that we are putting up the proper safety precautions as well.

RTA is primarily funded by the adult entertainment industry.

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Hypocrisy & Sex in Advertising, more from Blogworld

Hypocrisy riddles advertising when it comes to sex. Some interesting dichotomies were discussed at Blogworld Expo 2010 such as the portrayal of acceptable sex in the media. The delineating line in advertising being romantic sex is ok to use for sales but sex for the sake of sex is not. For example, KY Jelly ads always portrays married couples having sex. The message being, recreational sex is OK if you are married.

Of course this is not a new message or a new issue.  In the United States married sex is truly the only kind of sex that is OK to promote, whether it be recreational or procreational.  Sex between unmarried people for pure pleasure is frowned upon, at least in advertising.

Now outright sex might be frowned upon but implied sex, ie. provocative imagery, is not.  At least it is not frowned on for everyone.

The ability to utilize provocative imagery in advertising is inherently tied to the purveyor of the imagery. The brand is the ambassador not their image. So if the brand is respectable then sexually provocative imagery will be accepted, but if the brand is not considered mainstream acceptable then even conservatively provocative imagery will be viewed as innappropriate. This of course is a generalization. We do see backlash when even respectable brands push the envelope too far.  But they can still push the envelope much farther than so-called not respectable brands.

picture of a highway billboard for Adultcon

The image to the left is a Calvin Klein ad that is featured in mainstream magazines. Similar ads are on billboards in major cities, off highways and scattered across the country. The image to the left is a billboard for Adultcon, an adult entertainment convention. The Adultcon billboard was asked to be taken down because of its proximity to a school despite there being nothing provocative about the billboard. The only questionable thing it says is “Adult” and that word is not that questionable, though many would consider the inferred industry to be questionable.

Interestingly though, if you search “Porn Billboard Ad” in Google images, the first image you see is not some big breasted heaving porn star.  Nope Jenna Jameson was the third image! An ad by Calvin Klein is the first.

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