I got a message on Slack Saturday morning from Nathan, Halcyon’s Executive Director, and it reads, “Dude, look up the Pornhub Christmas gift card commercial.” It takes me a little while to Google it, since I am thinking this is obviously a joke . . . except, it’s not. Sure enough, after a quick Google search, I find an article with the video below. It is titled “SFW,” so I push play and watch the video. Is it funny? Meh. Is it disgusting? Not in the way you might think. The video doesn’t show anything inappropriate, in fact, this is its biggest offense. The Pornhub video shows family members hugging, and then the final gift exchanged is a Pornhub gift card given from a grandson to his grandfather. The grandfather is apparently very appreciative. The offense is that Pornhub is using the joy of family and Christmas to advertise their product; a product that is one of the greatest threats to family and completely offensive to the reason for Christmas — Christ’s birth.
A couple of months ago I wrote an article titled Millennials & Pornography: Are we preventing or perpetuating sexual violence? (hint: pornography perpetuates sexual violence), specifically citing Pornhub’s statistics on hours of pornography watched and the percentage of Millennials that watch pornography (second hint: it’s a lot). Here is an excerpt:
9 out of 10 rapists admit to using pornography on a regular basis. . . . One study asserts 28% of respondents who had been sexually abused reported their abuser used pornography during the act of violence, and 12% reported that they were forced to imitate pornography during their abuse. Another study shows that adolescents who view pornography are more likely to bully via physical and verbal sexual aggression, and participate in sexually violent acts. The study also found that pornography use was a good predictor of sexual violence. Moreover, about half of the most-purchased porn contains verbal aggression, and 88% contains physical aggression toward women.
Now, these stats don’t feel very Christmas-y. Pornhub, however, seems to think of their “product” as harmless, and their advertising clever and funny. But sexual violence and abuse don’t come across as very funny to me. The fact that 1 person every 107 seconds is sexually abused, and pornography plays a role in furthering that abuse, makes me think Pornhub’s ad is completely irresponsible as it is selling sexual violence, broken families, and abuse . . . by way of gift card.
Although it is an offensive product, the video is safe to watch. Warning: If you click the “Pornhub” logo in bottom right corner it will take you to Pornhub’s YouTube site.