Sex Toy Company Sues MTA Over Advertising Ban

NEW YORK — A New York City sex toy company is suing the MTA for banning advertisements for its pleasure products and accusing the transit agency of holding a "Victorian view of female sexuality."

The MTA rejected a subway ad campaign for Brooklyn-based Dame Products in December, about two months after the firm got the green light for the promotions. The agency maintained that it doesn't allow any advertising for sex toys because they promote a "sexually oriented business."

But there's a double standard in how that policy is enforced, Dame argues in the lawsuit filed Tuesday in Manhattan federal court. The complaint includes eight pages of sexually suggestive ads for erectile dysfunction medication, female libido enhancers, breast implants, condoms, a dating service and the Museum of Sex — which sells Dame's products.

"If they hadn’t decided that all those are for some reason OK, then I wouldn’t have a case," Dame CEO Alexandra Fine said. "They just have to be clear in their rules and regulations,"

The suit marks an escalation of a roughly yearlong battle between the MTA and sex toy companies seeking to expose themselves to a potential audience of millions on the subway.

The complaint asks the court to strike down the MTA's "sexually oriented business" policy and force the agency to place Dame's ads in the subway system. It also seeks financial compensation for Dame, which spent about $150,000 developing the campaign that was ultimately shelved, the complaint says.

Dame views its sleek toys as tools for sexual health that are "equally as valuable" as the arousal or libido medications that are already advertised underground, Fine said.

While Dame's products are sold in more than 500 stores around the U.S. and the company advertises elsewhere in the city, Fine said, their prohibition from the subway is making it harder for the firm to grow.

"The business is certainly held back by the assumption that these tools are prurient," she said.

While the MTA has not been served with the lawsuit, the agency plans to "vigorously" defend itself in court as its advertising policy does not discriminate based on gender or viewpoint, said Maxwell Young, the MTA's chief external affairs officer.

The MTA has been clear that its advertising policy does not allow ads for sex toys, though it does permit FDA-approved medicines for either gender, Young said. The First Amendment lawyer Victor Kovner will represent the MTA in the case, he said.

"In its proprietary capacity as the operator of a transit system used by all New Yorkers, the MTA is constitutionally entitled to draw reasonable content-based distinctions between different types of advertisements and to consider its diverse customers," Young said in a statement.

Dame's battle with the MTA and its advertising partner, Outfront Media, was not the first of its kind.

The transit agency sparked a public outcry last spring when advertisements for Unbound, another upstart sex toy firm, were rejected. The graphics depicted colorful scenes of women with sex toys and other everyday objects.

The MTA reversed course in May 2018 and said it would work toward an agreement with Unbound. But the company gave up after changes it made to the ads were not satisfactory.

Fine said she hopes the lawsuit will force the MTA to see "how similar we are to all these other companies that they’ve allowed on the platform."

"I want to change this conversation, and I think our inability to have public discourse in a safe way around sex is also part of the problems we’re having in society right now, or a major cause of it," Fine said.