Dame’s book, Toy Stories, is not as innocent as the name suggests. Dame is a female-founded sex toy brand. And the book launched for National Orgasm Day (the UK, Australia, United States, the Netherlands, Canada and South Africa). The idea comes from Rethink.
Dame collaborated with eleven acclaimed erotica authors to launch Toy Stories. The writers put Dame’s sex toys to the test to craft some of the steamiest, funniest, and cheekiest sex toy reviews ever written. This sensual review collection is explicitly designed to inspire women to explore pleasure and encourage sex toy users to share their own unfiltered toy stories as reviews under their favourite products and finally offer useful, enticing and descriptive reviews.
Toy Stories is available printed and online on Dame’s website, encouraging users to explore its pages anywhere, anytime and without holding back.
Beyond the playful format, the project tackles a real issue in the category. Users rarely leave sex toy reviews. And unlike many products, sex toys can’t be trialled and returned, making pre-purchase information even more crucial. But the intimate nature of sex toys often makes it uncomfortable for many to share their experience. This silence not only deprives others of valuable insights, hindering their journey to satisfaction, but it’s also particularly pertinent given the persistent orgasm gap affecting women. A recent 2024 study in the Journal of Sexual Medicine highlighted this disparity, revealing that women orgasm 22% to 30% less than men overall, with heterosexual women experiencing an even higher discrepancy.
Toy Stories is hinged to the recent trend in reading female erotica to make the review process feel sexy, literary, and shameless, giving readers an artful peek at pleasure while inviting them to explore their own. The book’s range of authors includes New York Times and USA Today bestsellers, Cathryn Fox, Kayleigh Malcolm, Nikki Sloane, Willow Winters, and Zoe York; popular authors, Alexandria House, Cecilia Tan, J.C. Hannigan, Marie Gray; poet, Christopher Sexton; and New York journalist and author, Iman Hariri-Kia.
“Sexy and sensual books are experiencing a new wave of popularity and we saw this trend as an amazing opportunity to make conversations about sex toys feel less intimidating,” stated Alexandra Fine, CEO of Dame.
“Dame was partially built on the pleasure gap amongst women which is why we love to drive home that we are made by women, for women. By partnering with these sensual and erotic writers, we’re engaging our community and ‘smut’ readers through a format they already are familiar with and love. With this, we hope Toy Stories inspires people, especially women, to feel more comfortable discussing sex and sexuality openly and shedding shame around pleasure. At the very least, we’re giving people a vivid, graphic and sensual understanding of how our toys can help transform their fantasies into reality.”
“The discomfort in sharing honest reviews about sex toys is leaving potential shoppers in the dark. To mark this National Orgasm Day, we are introducing a solution to give people and especially women a better chance at satisfaction and enhancing the shopping experience from reading reviews all the way to the bedroom,” added Geneviève Jannelle, creative director at Rethink. “Toy Stories is a fun and instructive tool to help people connect with their bodies while learning about Dame products. It’s teasers that tease.”
Credits
Client: Dame
Client Team: Alexandra Fine, Eddie Elliot Granger
Creative Agency: Rethink
CCO: Aaron Starkman
CSO: Sean McDonald
Executive Creative Director: Xavier Blais
Creative Director: Geneviève Jannelle
Copywriter: Nicolas Duois
Art Director: Claudia Barbiero
Producer: Éliane Chartier
Sound Engineer (Circonflex): Martin Boiselle
Proofreader: Davina Haisell
Lead Strategist: Pascal Routhier
Strategy Director: Clément Martin
Account Services: Rosalie Lemelin, Adriana Marquis-Duzink
Public Relations (Rethink): Kristel Dupont
Public Relations (SolComms) : Olivia Sepulveda, Kate Farren
