Trojan is jumping on the 50 Shades of Grey movie hype bandwagon. But the condom brand doesn't seem all that impressed by the franchise's BDSM-light theme.
A new two-minute slapstick ad (directed by Laura Murphy, best known for her work on MTV's Girl Code) pokes fun at a man and woman in couples therapy, discussing their misadventures trying to use the popular romance novel as a sort of Bondage for Dummies—even though the dude hasn't bothered to read it.
Unsurprisingly, he's the bigger doofus, though she also pulls her weight. And thankfully, she does kick him in the face, at one point. Eventually the therapist waves some magic word wand about feelings, and the couple rush off to bone in the car.
The takeaway, apparently, is that Trojan saves the day by making bad try-hard sex into good comfortable sex. "Get out of the grey area, into 50 shades of real pleasure," reads the tagline.A 15-second teaser for the longer ad will also run in movie theaters—50 Shades of Grey, the film adaption, comes out Feb. 13, and the promotional push is in full swing, with rabid fans claiming they're watching the YouTube trailer on repeat and Deadline Hollywood predicting a $60 million opening.
In other words, Trojan is making a play to charm people who are curious about the kink but ultimately deem it all too weird for their own enjoyment. (For what it's worth, BDSM experts seem to think the book is nonsense, too.)
Regardless, everyone can agree that the guy in the Trojan ad should have picked another safe word.