If there’s one word that I would use to describe the marketing of vibrators and sex toys since the very beginning, it’s “cheeky” (pun unintended). Sex toys have been around for centuries, but vibrators have a special place in history (and in our hearts and bodies).

Hallie Lieberman is an expert in the history of vibrators as the author of relevant academic literature and the book Buzz: A Stimulating History of the Sex Toy. 

Regarding the early marketing of vibes, in an article, Lieberman gives us a brief crash course in marketing history. The electromechanical vibrator was first invented as a device for medical therapy in the late 19th century, but in the early 20th century, companies began marketing vibrators as consumer appliances, targeting grandparents, mothers, infants, and young adults. Despite anti-obscenity laws and antimasturbation rhetoric, companies were able to market vibrators through strategic advertising by portraying them as nonsexual household appliances or electrotherapeutic devices while covertly conveying their sexual uses through imagery and the sale of phallic attachments. Companies positioned vibrators as emblems of domesticity and motherhood in household appliance ads and as symbols of progressive gender roles in electrotherapeutic ads.

Whether or not companies knew what their devices were really used for, they ran advertisements in all of the mainstream publications.

Let’s break down this history by time period. Time for a her-story lesson!

The 1800s

Vibrators were initially created as medical devices to treat “hysteria” in women. Hysteria was a diagnosis given to women who experienced a range of symptoms, including anxiety, irritability, and sexual desire – god forbid a woman experiences sexual desire (insert eye roll). 

In the late 1800s, doctors would use vibrators to induce “hysterical paroxysm” (orgasms) in women as a treatment for hysteria – this treatment was popular in Europe (think Victorian-era England), with more heinous and sinister experimental treatments occurring in the Salpetriere Hospital in Paris under the direction of Dr. Jean-Martin Charcot. 

At the time, which may be wildly hard to believe, many medical bodies and practitioners didn’t recognize pleasure as something that could be experienced by the female body – they didn’t know these paroxysms were pleasurable – there was an air of secrecy among patients… and doctors wondered why they kept coming back for appointments.

For a long time, vibrators, or rather the ancestors of what we now call a vibrator, were medical treatments for anything from weight loss to neuroses. 

The 1900s

In 1902, the American Vibrator Company released an advertisement for the “Vibro-Massager” in the Sears Roebuck catalog. The advertisement stated that the Vibro-Massager could “relieve nervousness, headache, and insomnia.” Ads do not mention sexual pleasure.

In 1917, the Hamilton Beach Company released an advertisement for the “Vibratile.” The advertisement stated that the Vibratile was “an aid that every woman appreciates” and could be used for “the most delicate parts of the body”. However, the ad still did not explicitly mention sexual pleasure.

In the 1920s and 1930s ads in women’s magazines would show women using vibrators on their necks, shoulders, and backs. These ads were still marketed towards women as medical devices that could “cure” various ailments.

In the 1960s and 1970s, vibrator ads became even more explicit. Ads in men’s magazines would show women using vibrators for sexual pleasure. However, these ads were still marketed toward men, not women.

It wasn’t until the 1980s and 1990s that vibrator ads were marketed directly to women for sexual pleasure. Ads for the Trojan Vibrations sex toys in 1994 were a turning point in vibrator advertising. The ad was playful and empowering, and it helped to put a dent in the taboo surrounding vibrators and female sexuality.

Advertising Vibes Today

Despite modernization, different societal views of sexuality, and capitalistic development, sex toys and sexual health products designed for women and marginalized gender identities remain highly censored in advertising, and generally speaking, sexuality is still often suggested, but not outright mentioned. Though, advertisements for men’s pleasure and male sexual health are not censored to the extent that they are for women and marginalized gender identities.

An example of an ad for erectile dysfunction that showed in NYC and on the Metropolitan Transit Authority prior to Dame’s.

After a three-year-long battle, in 2018 Dame “won the right to display its ads on the subway—making it the first female-founded pleasure brand to run ads throughout New York City on the Metropolitan Transit Authority.”

One of Dame’s winning ads that at last was shown in NYC and on the Metropolitan Transit Authority.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the history of vibrator advertising is a fascinating look at how society’s attitudes toward sex and female sexuality have evolved over time. From medical devices marketed towards women’s “hysteria” to empowering tools for sexual pleasure, vibrators have come a long way. And while there is still work to be done to break down the stigma surrounding sex toys, vibrator advertising has played a crucial role in normalizing and celebrating female sexuality.

Hallie Lieberman says, “because of controversy, vibrators continue to be sold in ways similar to those in which they were marketed in the early twentieth century.”

Written by:

Gillian ‘Gigi’ Singer, MPH

Board Certified Sexologist, Sexuality Educator, and Sex Ed Content Specialist

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