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There are a lot of strange ads on the New York City subway. You'll see everything from calls for schizophrenics to participate in clinical studies to those insufferable Fiverr ads that aim to make the banal world of freelancing seem magical. Sometimes, those advertisements stir controversy, like in 2015 when a set of body-shaming banners from supplement company Protein World drew the ire of straphangers.
But this week, the MTA approved a run of ads from sex toy company Unbound, just days after they rejected it for containing “offensive sexual material.” The company called the authority out on Instagram on Wednesday, and one day later the decision was reversed.
In the post, Unbound said that the MTA was denying women's sexuality equal access to public forums, despite allowing for erectile dysfunction ads to be placed in subway cars across town. It called for its followers to share the images to spread the word—and they did in droves. Following the backlash, the MTA told the Post that it directed its advertising partner to “work with the company toward a resolution that is agreeable to all parties and allows their ads on the system.”
That’s not quite a complete reversal, but when it comes to the subway, it’s all about the little victories.
According to the MTA’s policies, ads are prohibited from containing sexually explicit material that may be deemed harmful to minors, images of people who appear to be a minor in a sexually suggestive pose or contain the public display of offensive sexual material. Unbound argues that its ads violate none of these standards.
The MTA’s advertising regulations certainly seem a bit old hat, especially when you consider that any given subway ride could feature a naked person or human feces.
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