“Pussy is great by itself, but you know sharing with friends, it’s nice to experiment and I would recommend sharing pussy with friends…”
Where did I find these quotes? Comments posted on a porn site? Men discussing their sexual preferences perhaps?
No, they’re found in this promotion for an energy drink called Pussy. These words were uttered through the dazzling teeth of Sam Branson and filmed at the Kensington Roof Gardens owned by daddy Sir Richard Branson.
The video’s opening frame states the company’s mission is for “Global Pussyfication.”
It appears they are succeeding.
Three thousand retailers in the UK alone can’t get enough of it. It’s even in Tesco. And Selfridges. And on Virgin trains (maybe the planes are next – surely Richard Branson will see the cross-promotional opportunities in combining the company names?).
The beverage is now in 18 countries worldwide, including Australia where it can be found in Brisbane and on the Gold Coast and the Sunshine Coast.
The energy drink was created by Johnnie Shearer. The title came to him in his bedroom (no surprises there) and now he has reached such dizzying heights of success as to be described as: “The new king of pussy”.
Shearer has a photo of porn mogul Hugh Hefner drinking Pussy at his 80th birthday. Shearer has now joined entrepreneurs Sam Branson and sister Holly in their corporate sexualisation mission.
While smothered in porno references and online pics of women naked from the waist down and in sexual acts illustrating the brand, Pussy’s marketers tell us: “The drink is pure. It’s your mind that’s the problem”.
The Australian distributor also thinks we are idiots, parroting the line in the Courier Mail on the weekend.
Their drink “challenges the consensus” and is “spontaneous, entertaining, optimistic and fun. It’s a starting point. A moment when something happens and when things begin – Pussy starts conversations. It believes in having a good time as often as possible”.
At the expense of women. Because this drink contributes to the second class status of women and girls. How is it that appropriating porn industry terminology is seen as cool bourgeois sophistication? It’s happening every day, as I’ve documented so many times (including here recently).
The product is so mainsteam that an online vocational training institute has established a new distribution business for the energy drink in Australia, in a move described by the CEO of the Dymond Institute of Business, Russell Dymond, as a “giant leap forward”. The brand, says the cool and sophisticated Dymond, is “exciting and progressive.”
“This is a golden opportunity for Dymond Institute’s Business and Marketing students to apply their learning, knowledge and skills, to a real life business, as opposed to simulated business scenarios,” Dymond says proudly.
“The Pussy Drinks option…will enable our students… to develop product, pricing, promotional and distribution tactics, as well as strategic direction.”
So even our educational institutions are getting in on the act. Female students will be expected to market and promote a symbol of their own objectification.
Marketing Sexploitation 101: enroll now at the Dymond Institute of Business.
Thanks to the Pussy wunderkinds, boys are encouraged to crack sexist jokes and harass girls. If Pussy is in the fridge at their local milkbar next to the milk, what’s the harm in using the term in interaction with each other and with girls?
The drink and the advertising that goes with it entice boys and men to jest about ‘drinking pussy’ or ‘needing pussy’ or ‘getting pussy’ (you can enquire about the drink through an email whose address begins ‘Get Pussy’). Fuelled by the porn-inspired references, they will ask their mates if they ‘would like some pussy’ or tell them it’s ‘BYO Pussy’.
The porn-inspired name encourages boys and men to dissect women and see them only in terms of their sexual body parts. “Pussy is great by itself,” as Branson Junior informs us, as though it is an inanimate object not connected to a real flesh and blood woman. All women are collapsed as pussy, to be shared and consumed by men.
This product is part of the widespread sexploitation of women and girls. The mainstreaming of the drink treats women and girls as objects and is part of the sexual harassment of women and girls, especially given plans to saturate Queensland with the product.
The young woman serving behind the counter is asked by a male where he can find some “pussy”. It’s not hard to imagine what she could be subjected to while going about her work. Pussy has provided yet another tool for multiple harassment scenarios.
Of course many girls will joke and laugh along. Certainly, that is what they are expected to do. Girls are taught to put up with sexist crap from the earliest of ages, even to embrace it as liberating. And if they are upset, or distressed, or uncomfortable, well that’s too bad, they just need to lighten up. And don’t they know that even Holly Branson thinks Pussy is great and has one every morning?
The Pussy energy drink is just another example of the mainstreaming of porn-inspired themes. It pretends to be cool but really it’s just Big Sexism in a can. And that doesn’t “move us forward” as the drink’s masterminds claim. It sets us back. Again.
13 Responses
Hi Melinda,
This is too depressing.
So what are we doing about this? Who do we contact to complain? Can we start a change.org petition and send it to the Bransons?
Please advise!
Definately looking into the possibilities Michelle. Stand by….will likely be sometime in January, given the season we are entering….
The optimist in me is hoping this is an April fool – but the realist shakes her
head yet again!! I think I will release one called ‘pr•ck’ and see how that sells! I’m sure all the supermarkets would welcome that with open arms
I will tweet to Object – do let me know about any letters etc to speak out about this juvenile drink
No it is not ‘sexism in a can’ it is ‘male hatred of women in a can.’ In other words misogyny is now fun because women aren’t human instead they are men’s disposable sexual service stations.
Imagine if it was men who were being depicted as ‘p s’ in a can!’ There would be an outcry by men all claiming ‘this is sexist and promoting male hatred’ but men’s hatred and contempt for women is supposedly humour. Malestream advertising knows they will not be challenged about promoting male hatred/male contempt for women because the issue is not racism or homophobia but merely everyday mundane (sic) male contempt and male exploitation of women in the name of profit. There is no such thing as ‘promotion of male hatred/contempt for women’ because male supremacist systems refuse to accept and acknowledge women are not a specialist or minority group – rather we comprise majority of human race but one wouldn’t know it given the constant misogynistic messages being circulated.
Ah yes C. Moore let’s have an advertising campaign promoting a drink called ‘Prick’ and see if men become enraged because after all the campaign will be ‘humorous’ and who cares if men are being exploited. But wait the world revolves around men so we can’t dehumanise men but dehumanise women – well that’s okay is it not?
this just makes my blood boil. Every time I see some snot nosed teenager with one it will be a big fat reminder that women are the sex class and we will NEVER even have a whiff of equality in my life time.
I dont know how I’ll honestly not be either moved to tears or to kick some dick. Really, I just want to scream.
I am SO OVER THIS RUBBISH. Money spinning at the expense of women yet again.And they had to add the graphics to really push home their sleazy point.
Richard Branson you should know better, but it’s all about the money with no thought of the efects on women and girlls. Wonder what sort of market research (if any) did they conduct beforehand? Obviously the average woman was not part of it.
I will NOT fly Virgin until this is taken out of the market. There are other airlines that can do just what they do if not better. And at least they won’t have that drink on board.
How revolting. Shame on you Sir Richard Branson. Obviously your marketing skills revolve around your obsession with girls/ women. The creation of an airline named Virgin promoted the concept of purity and offered a brand new product that would be different from all other airlines. But your naming and promotion of this soft drink really does change one’s perception as to what drives you in the pursuit of wealth and noteriety, the demeaning of girls and women. This is a sleazy marketing gimmick at the expense of the female of the species and reinforces the immature male’s perception that girls/women are readily available whenever and wherever they find themselves. This, whether you realise it Richard, is another pornographic tactic which will distort the young male’s ability to develop a mature adult relationship with the opposite sex.
Pussy is another word for cat and with cat in mind then the tag line is quite funny. Lots of people (not just men, women too) like petting cats.
Your outrage is ridiculous. By your reasoning, only men will be drinking this. How about the lesbians using the lines you described that men will be using?
What if a straight woman drinks it because she likes the taste? Are all women meant to ignore this drink?
Silly male I must be thinking feminism was all about choice…
I’m female and find this hilarious. I don’t see what the big deal is.
yes, Branson Heffner et al are idiots, but you aren’t affronted, Melinda, for feminist reasons; what if this drink were called C*ck? Wouldn’t you be just as outraged? It’s not exploitation you’re worried about, but sex. Which is fine, be outraged – it’s certainly outrageous – but call it by its proper name, and we’ll see that it’s far more closely allied with puritanism than feminism.
The point is Adam, that what you have suggested just wouldn’t happen. Because it is gendered. And the gender most in line for sexist advertising and products is women.
yes, on reflection, you’re probably right, it wouldn’t happen – still, I wonder if you’d call it sexist even if wasn’t, if it was actually just outrageously sexual – is it possible to make the distinction? What if this product was being released by a female-run company?
I’d still criticise the product Adam.