Adam & Eve (company)

Adam & Eve is a conglomerate company that sells sex toys, vibrators, condoms, and lingerie, as well as funding non-profit social marketing organizations that address issues such as population growth, disease control and sex education in developing countries. The company is the largest e-commerce distributor of condoms, sex toys, and erotica in the United States.[1] Founder Phil Harvey has been called "one of the most influential figures in the American sex industry today".[1] Its parent company, PHE Inc., is the largest private employer in Hillsborough, North Carolina, where its headquarters are situated.[1]

Adam & Eve
TypePrivate
IndustrySex industry
Founded1970 (1970)
Chapel Hill, North Carolina, U.S.
FoundersPhil Harvey
Tim Black
Headquarters
Hillsborough, North Carolina, U.S.
ProductsSex toys, personal lubricants, condoms
ParentPHE, Inc.
Websitewww.adameve.com
Footnotes / references
[1]

Origins

Adam & Eve was founded in 1970 by physician Tim Black and Phil Harvey. It started as a small storefront on one of Chapel Hill, North Carolina's main streets, selling condoms and lubricants. It soon became a mail-order catalog selling contraceptives through non-medical channels.[1]

Harvey, having just returned from India as a part of the CARE pre-school feeding program, concluded that poor family planning was the source of many social problems. While still a graduate student at the University of North Carolina's School of Public Health, Harvey and Black conceived Adam & Eve to fund a non-profit organization in hopes of using the profits to finance family-planning programs in developing countries,.[2] With a Ford Foundation fellowship, the two men devised a plan to use social marketing in the U.S., and with university consent, they began writing witty ad copy ("What will you get her this Christmas -- pregnant?") [2] and advertising condoms in the mail. After running ads in 300 of the largest U.S. college newspapers, the orders started and did not stop. Though selling condoms via the mail was in violation of the Comstock Act (not overturned judicially in its entirety until 1972), Harvey and Black knew the law was rarely enforced. Success ensued, and the men began to see a profit, stating, "The mail-order condom market was just sitting there waiting for somebody," recalls Harvey. "We'd sit down at the end of the week and pay our bills and I'd say, 'There seems to be some money leftover here.' That's about how much we knew about business. He also gives authors a chance to write for his videos." [2]

Philanthropy

Population Services International
Main article: Population Services International

With business generating more than enough revenue to cover costs, the partners wondered if the condom business could create enough of a profit to finance overseas social-marketing projects. If so, they would have the ability to bypass conventional donors and function with complete autonomy. With that, the men launched Population Services International (PSI), and by 1975 were conducting condom marketing programs in Bangladesh and Kenya. Though Harvey left his position as the director in the late 1970s, PSI still sells birth control and health products in over 60 countries and is prominent in international family planning.

DKT International
Main article: DKT International

In the late 1970s, Harvey focused more on running Adam & Eve, but in 1989, he launched DKT International (DKT), an organization that promotes family planning and HIV/AIDS prevention in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.[1][3] Much of DKT's revenue comes from its sales of low-cost contraceptives, but Adam & Eve also donates more than 25% of its profits to DKT.[3][4] While DKT's biggest programs draw funding from government agencies and foundations, its private funding allows it to be a more innovative and agile participant in its discipline.[5] DKT's social marketing strategies have included advertising, creating location-specific brands, working with local social networks and militaries, and targeting high-risk groups.[5][6][7][8][9]

Company overview

Along with Adam & Eve's brand of erotic toys, Adam & Eve carries a variety of items for men, women and couples. In 2004, Adam & Eve started franchising its stores in the U.S. In 2009, the company donated funds to the Free Speech Coalition.[10] In 2019, Adam & Eve acquired the Excite Group, Australia's largest online adult retailer.

References
  1. Eric Schlosser (2004). Reefer madness: sex, drugs, and cheap labor in the American black market. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN 0-618-44670-2.
  2. "Mother Jones article". Mother Jones. Archived from the original on 17 August 2008. Retrieved 28 September 2015.
  3. "About DKT". DKT International. Archived from the original on 31 May 2009. Retrieved 2009-06-05.
  4. "About Adam & Eve". Adam & Eve. Archived from the original on 24 April 2009. Retrieved 2009-06-05.
  5. Cheshes, Jay (2002). "Hard-Core Philanthropist". Mother Jones. Archived from the original on 2008-03-06. Retrieved June 5, 2009.
  6. "How Social Marketing Changes Lives". DKT International. Archived from the original on 19 May 2009. Retrieved 2009-06-05.
  7. Batty, David (November 2, 2007). "Coffee condoms promote safe sex in Ethiopia". The Guardian. Retrieved June 5, 2009.
  8. Jordon, Miriam (September 21, 1999). "Selling Birth Control to India's Poor: Medicine Men Market an Array Of Contraceptives". The Wall Street Journal.
  9. Schnayerson, Ben (November 24, 2002). "AIDS in Asia: The Continent's Growing Crisis". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved June 5, 2009.
  10. "Companies Donate to FSC Fundraiser at Adultcon 16". XBIZ. Archived from the original on 29 June 2015. Retrieved 28 September 2015.

Further reading
  • Philip D. Harvey, The Government Vs. Erotica: The Siege of Adam and Eve, Prometheus Books, 2001, ISBN 978-1573928816.
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