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| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Founded | North Carolina, U.S. (1970) |
| Founder(s) | Phil Harvey & Tim Black |
| Headquarters |  Hillsborough, North Carolina, U.S. |
| Industry | Sex industry |
| Products | Sex toys, Pornographic films, condoms |
| Parent | PHE, Inc. |
| Website | AdamEve.com |
| [1] | |
Adam & Eve is a marketer of adult products that sells sex toys and produces pornographic films, as well as funding non-profit social marketing organizations that address issues such as population growth, disease control and sex education in developing countries. In 2006 it was described by Reuters as one of the handful of studios that dominate the U.S. porn industry. [2] The company is the largest mail-order distributor of condoms, sex toys and pornographic films 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]
Contents |
Origins
Adam & Eve was founded in 1970 by physician Tim Black and Phil Harvey as 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,[3]. 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?") [3] and advertising condoms in the mail. After running ads in 300 of the largest U.S. college newspapers, the orders started and didn’t stop. Though selling condoms via the mail was in violation of the Comstock Act, 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." [3]
Philanthropy
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 1970’s, PSI still sells birth control and health products in over 60 countries and is prominent in international family planning.
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][4] 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.[4][5] 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.[6] DKT's social marketing strategies have included advertising, creating location-specific brands, working with local social networks and militaries, and targeting high-risk groups.[6][7][8][9][10]
Pornographic film studio
The major American pornographic film studios promote their latest releases to, and seek funds for new productions from the company, because of its huge buying power.[1] In 2009 the company donated funds to the Free Speech Coalition [11] It's contract stars include Kayden Kross.[12]
Awards
The following is a selection of some of the major awards Adam & Eve films have won:
- 2003 AVN Award - 'Best Specialty Release, Other Genre' for Internal Affairs 5 [13]
- 2003 AVN award - 'Best Continuing Video Series' for Naked Hollywood[13]
- 2004 AVN Award - 'Best Video Feature' for Rawhide [13]
- 2005 AVN Award - 'Best Specialty Release - Spanking' for Nina Hartley's Guide to Spanking [13]
- 2006 AVN Award - 'Best DVD' for Pirates [13]
- 2006 AVN Award - 'Best Video Feature' for Pirates [13]
- 2008 AVN Award - 'Top Selling Title of the Year – 2007' for Pirates [14]
- 2009 AVN Award - 'Best Sex Comedy' for Not Bewitched XXX [15]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g Eric Schlosser (2004). Reefer madness: sex, drugs, and cheap labor in the American black market. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN 0618446702. http://books.google.com/books?id=s4FeZmuBAqsC.
- ^ "Porn stars strut their stuff at awards". TVNZ. http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/411423/646884. Retrieved 2009-03-11.
- ^ a b c Hard-Core Philanthropist, Mother Jones 2002
- ^ a b "About DKT". DKT International. http://www.dktinternational.org/index.php?section=10. Retrieved 2009-06-05.
- ^ "About Adam & Eve (adult content)". Adam & Eve. http://www.adameve.com/t-company_info.aspx. Retrieved 2009-06-05.
- ^ a b Cheshes, Jay (2002). "Hard-Core Philanthropist". Mother Jones. Archived from the original on 2008-03-06. http://web.archive.org/web/20080306201159/http://www.motherjones.com/commentary/notebook/2002/11/ma_158_01.html. Retrieved June 05, 2009.
- ^ Batty, David (November 2, 2007). "Coffee condoms promote safe sex in Ethiopia". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/nov/02/aids.ethiopia. Retrieved June 5, 2009.
- ^ Jordon, Miriam (September 21, 1999). "Selling Birth Control to India's Poor: Medicine Men Market an Array Of Contraceptives". The Wall Street Journal.
- ^ Schnayerson, Ben (November 24, 2002). "AIDS in Asia: The Continent's Growing Crisis". San Francisco Chronicle. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2002/11/24/MN110776.DTL. Retrieved June 5, 2009.
- ^ www.XBIZ.com
- ^ Adam & Eve’s Kayden Kross to Host PSK
- ^ a b c d e f "AVN AWARDS PAST WINNERS". AVN. http://www.avnawards.com/index.php?content=pastwinners. Retrieved 2009-03-13.
- ^ "2008 AVN AWARDS WINNERS ANNOUNCED". AVN. http://business.avn.com/articles/2759.html. Retrieved 2009-03-12.
- ^ "THE 2009 AVN AWARDS WINNERS". AVN. http://www.avnawards.com/index.php?content=winners09. Retrieved 2009-03-07.
External links
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