Page 32 - AVN Intimate Summer 2019

Male Call The Bucked line of lubricants for men made a big debut to during June’s Pride Weekend at Chi Chi LaRue’s adult boutique in West Hollywood.
32 | INTIMATE | SUMMER 2019
buyers at the January 2019 ANME trade show, and took its bow before consumers
Targeted Marketing
The importance of packaging can’t be
overstated. Take the bullet-shaped bottles used
by Gun Oil silicone lube. “They made a real
male, butch-looking product which was great,”
Novinger said.
Scott Fraser, the founder of Empowered
Products, recounts the inspiration behind Gun
Oil. “I based our first two Gun Oil lubricants
on my experience in the Persian Gulf as a U.S.
Marine deployed just south of the Kuwaiti
border preparing for Desert Storm. In 1990, in
the middle of the Saudi desert, me and my fellow
Marines were denied traditional sources of fun
and frolic such as alcohol and dirty magazines by
our Saudi hosts. Yet, we did have our hands, our
imaginations and bottles of a slippery lubricant,
nicknamed ‘gun oil,’ in the butt-plates of our
M16 rifles. Now, just add a secluded place to use
it, nicknamed the ‘whack shack,’ and the legend
of our Gun Oil silicone lubricant was born!”
In March 2002, Fraser brought his “manly-
man lubricants” to the market, which prior to
that was dominated by options “with extremely
feminine packaging or with chemically preserved
and petroleum-based formulas.” Neither was
appealing to Fraser, who said, “I believe that
a man and his penis have a sacred bond that
demands a lubricant that both looks good and is
made with nurturing ingredients.”
“Male customers are
different than female
customers. ... They think differently. They have different needs.”
—Erik Vasquez, Ride Bodyworx
He elaborated, “To look and feel manly while
lubing up is why I chose the copper and black
color scheme with the bullet-shape bottle for
Gun Oil’s packaging. To promote both sexual
and physical wellness is why we use natural
preservatives and no petroleum products
throughout our wide scope of lubricant formulas.
And, as the men’s lubricant market continues
to expand with new formulas of questionable
quality, I want to remind everyone to practice
ingredient awareness by reading the labels
and avoiding such toxins as petroleum-based
components and parabens to ensure your own
wellbeing.”
When contemplating masculine branding,
it wouldn’t do to overlook the twin flexed
biceps that make up the Elbow Grease logo. The
lubricant was created in 1979 by David Mazer,
founder of B. Cumming Co. “When the company
began, it was the second lubricant on the market
targeted toward the gay community,” Mazer
told AVN in an earlier interview. “Elbow Grease