Amid the global frenzy for the new season of the series ‘Game of Thrones’, the pornographic production company Digital Playground, in collaboration with the Australian agency M&C Saatchi and the non-profit organization Blue Ball Foundation, has launched the porn parody ‘Game of Balls’. In a scene from the film, porn actress Eva Lovia grabs her acting partner’s ‘family jewels’, turns to the camera, and demonstrates how men (or their partners) can perform a testicular examination. This scene is part of a campaign aimed at raising awareness among men about the importance of early detection of testicular cancer and, as the results show, it has succeeded in its intention to attract the attention of the target audience.
Interestingly, this is not the first campaign in which adult content is produced to raise awareness among men or women about the importance of (self)examination. In fact, it is one of the few that has not been met with backlash from part of the audience. A few weeks ago, the media reported on another ‘fake’ porn production that, this time, explains to men how to have their better halves perform breast examinations for the purpose of detecting cancer. The bait was devised by the Bolivian Alcázar Gynecology Institute in collaboration with the agency DDB, and it was published on the leading global porn site PornHub, whose videos were viewed 78.9 billion times last year (!). Given that the frame featured voluptuous breasts being massaged by experienced oiled male hands, women, often feminists by worldview, protested against the objectification of women’s breasts and the pornification of cancer.
A similar situation occurred with PornHub three years ago when it promised to donate a cent to the For the Cure Foundation for every thirtieth video viewed in the Small Tits or Big Tits category. Considering that this category is viewed 70 to 90 million times monthly, at least $30,000 would have been donated to the organization. However, the head of the organization flatly rejected their offer, which sparked mixed reactions in the digital media world, just as is the case today with the controversial erotic breast massage on PornHub. On one hand, the question arises whether men can take the examination, as well as the importance of early diagnosis of breast cancer, seriously if this process is presented as a hot foreplay before the fiery ‘bang-bang’? And is it appropriate for pornographic media and brands (whose approach to women and female sexuality is often tailored to the vision of aroused males and has nothing to do with reality) to meddle in the area of ‘women’s’ health at all? On the other hand, can an organization refuse money simply because it is offered by a ‘dirty’, but completely legal and, I would add, popular brand? Or is the goal of the campaign to raise awareness, attract attention? If it motivates even one man or woman, isn’t that already a success for which the pornification of breasts takes a back seat? And finally, why is no one (at least not publicly) protesting in this first case, ‘Game of Balls’, where the testicular examination is depicted as masturbation with a bit more concentration?
