Page 48 - AVN MAY 2024

“This is the best marketing campaign we’ve ever put together.”
—VMG executive producer Mike Miller
Inspired to meet the moment, Vixen Media Group in April orchestrated the most elaborate photoshoot in the company’s history, teaming with Fleshlight to create an ad campaign designed to be a throwback to a classic era of adult.
In an homage to the late-night phone sex commercials and men’s magazine photography of the late ’80s and early ’90s, VMG went big with Bardot over two days at a luxury estate in Beverly Hills, Calif.
“I think we really nailed something very cool,” Vanna says. “The inspo for the shoot really started last year at the end of my Vixen Angel day when we were driving back from the marina. “Mike and I were talking about how much we loved Penthouse, especially the late ’80s, early
’90s era—around like Vanessa Williams. It was really such a golden era for them.
“We just loved that style of photography—so much more went into those photoshoots back then. Now Penthouse is still great, but it’s definitely very different from what things used to be.
We really wanted to bring that back and do something similar to that.
“It was really cool to be involved from the first storyboards that were made and then getting
to see everything come together.
“And my Fleshlight is officially launching Memorial Day, so the whole theme of the shoot really
screams summer. It’s exciting.”
The timing allows the images to serve dual purposes, as they’re doubling as Bardot’s May
AVN magazine cover and layout.
“We’ve been talking with Fleshlight about doing some creative concepts for a while,” VMG’s
Miller explains. “Everything just really aligned and we were able to put a shoot together that could also be a great AVN feature. There are also some cool Easter eggs involved in the campaign.”
Miller & Co. worked with Bardot on creating a phone sex line for fans, so that if they buy her Dopamine Fleshlight they will unlock a special code to get an eight-minute audio recording from her; if they purchase the Oxytocin, they’ll gain access to a different code.
“The other thing we wanted to do with it was shoot a commercial that fits with the aesthetic of the shoot, so we did a lot of the glamour shots around that—old-school Penthouse style with classic poses.”
It became an enormous undertaking for the VMG production team, which did a deep dive researching the old “1-900” commercials that ran on late-night TV in preparation for the shoot.
“This is the best marketing campaign we’ve ever put together,” Miller says.
48 AVN.COM | 5.24 | VANNA BARDOT