Amazon pushes sex toys to random punters

Dildo email sent out willy-nilly

By John Oates • Get more from this author

Posted in Bootnotes, 12th April 2007 13:57 GMT

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A pre-Easter email from marketing bods at Amazon.co.uk raised the hackles of one Reg reader with its subject line: "Bonking like a Spring Bunny? Rampant Rabbits from £17.50 at Amazon.co.uk."

The Rampant Rabbit is not, we are reliably informed, an actual Easter Bunny. The email arrived complete with eye-watering pictures of "Spring Bunnies of a different sort", love eggs, clitoral stimulators, butt plugs, and a range of goods called "male pleasure sleeves".

The Reg reader, who denies ever purchasing such products, and certainly not from Amazon, was not impressed. He told us by email: "This email was fully illustrated with all manner of 'exotic' devices normally found in Sex Shops and not in my inbox."

He did receive an apology from Amazon blaming a "technical error" and promised the mistake would not be repeated.

You can see the email here, but it's probably not safe for work.

Amazon.co.uk would not tell us how many customers received the mail, or detail the nature of the "technical error", but did send us the following statement:

Amazon.co.uk promotional mailings are based on previous purchases and should only go to customers who have previously purchased items from a particular store. We are aware, however, that a 'Sex & Sensuality' promotional mail was erroneously sent to a small number of customers who have never purchased anything from our 'Sex and Sensuality' store.
We sincerely apologise to any customer who has received this promotional mail in error and for any offence it may have caused. We trust that the customers in question will continue to use Amazon.co.uk for their online shopping needs.

We hope so too. ®

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