Beto, Take Note: Danish Politician Runs Ad on Pornhub

When it was first reported that Danish MP Joachim Olsen had run an ad on Pornhub, the most immediate question on most people’s minds appeared to be “Why?” What politician in his or her right mind would risk alienating socially conservative voters by advertising on what is likely the best-known porn site in existence?

When considering the question, the first thing to keep in mind is that Olsen largely saw running the ad as a lark – a good way to shine a light on his sense of humor, a trait he believes Danish voters are already aware of on his part, and which he thinks they may appreciate.

“I know that some people will be aghast,” Olsen said of the ad. “You can’t say anything today without some people getting upset. I don’t take it very seriously. Those who know me as a politician know that I am serious, but I have a sense of humor and think this is a good laugh.”

It’s also hard to believe anyone who understands its Danish text could take the ad too seriously, considering the slogan it contains reportedly translates to “when you finish wanking, vote for Jokke” (‘Jokke’ being a common nickname for Joachim).

The ad wasn’t done solely for comedic purposes, however; as Olsen has also noted, Pornhub is a highly visible spot – and sports a user base in which Danes are well-represented.

“You need to get out everywhere, so we thought it could be amusing with an ad on Pornhub,” Olsen said. “Half the internet is porn and you need to be where the voters are – including a porn site.”

If I had to guess, I’d say this story is probably more surprising and shocking to American readers than it is to Danish voters. While there certainly are anti-porn people and groups in the country, according to the Kinsey Institute, Denmark was the first country to decriminalize hardcore pornography. This decriminalization of porn took place in 1967 – six years before the U.S. Supreme court issued its decision in the landmark American obscenity case Miller v. California, which established the three-prong ‘test’ for obscenity that’s still in use today.

Even though porn arguably enjoys a greater degree of social acceptance in the U.S. now than ever before, it’s still difficult to imagine any U.S. politician advertising on Pornhub, let alone a Congressperson or Senator, the closest U.S. equivalent to Olsen’s position as an MP.

The U.S. politician most likely to be able to ‘get away with’ advertising on a porn site is probably President Donald Trump – and given that he once pledged to crack down on porn once in office, openly advertising on massively popular porn sites might lead to some awkward moments with his supporters among the Christian Right. Then again, while many of Trump’s words, actions and personality traits seem incompatible with Christian beliefs, his support among evangelicals has proven very resilient indeed, so it’s possible they’d find a way to easily rationalize his advertising on a porn site, too.

Ultimately, Olsen’s advertising on Pornhub may say more about the differences between American and Danish culture than it does about his own temerity as a politician. In other words, if he were seeking reelection support from a more socially conservative electorate, I doubt he’d have taken the risk, even if he thought he could spin it as a kind of half-joke, after the fact.

Olsen’s advertising on Pornhub raises another question, too – one which is probably more relevant to members of the adult industry than why a politician would take out an ad on Pornhub. If a politician from any given country doesn’t see porn sites as forbidden territory for his advertising, might businesses in that same country assess the risks the same way?

If so, Olsen’s Pornhub ad campaign may be less of a harbinger of more political ads to come on porn sites than a suggestion that mainstream/porn crossover ad campaigns are more viable than many people might assume.

Photo of Joachim Olsen by Mogens Engelund, use licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license