“Scandalous” Dog Toy Gets Positive Reactions From Netizens

• The toy resembles a popular male adult toy.
• The company’s social media team was surprised at the funny but positive reaction to the post.
• They cashed in on it and made the “scandalous” product work for them.

So a dog toy that looks like an adult toy gets included in a box of goodies for dogs. It was supposed to be scandalous or offensive, but it turned out to be a social media marketing win.

The said box was from BarkBox, a subscription-based service that delivers a package containing toys, treats, and goodies for dogs.

Deliveries come every month.

Their special holiday promo caused major attention online, because one of the chewable dog toys in the box, which was supposed to look like a cocktail wiener (complete with a pig snout on one end and a pig butt on the opposite end) actually resembled a Fleshlight, one of the most popular adult toys for men.

Now we’re not going to elaborate here what a Fleshlight looks like, just Google it (NSFW). The plushie toy is called “Big Honkin’ Pigs in a Blanket.” It was part of treats in the service’s “Thanksgiving BarkBox.”

The resemblance to Fleshlight did not escape the eagle-eyes of netizens, who took to social media to voice their opinion. A Twitter user posted a screenshot of the item, along with the caption “What’s going on, fam?”

Alexis Nelson, Head of Social Media Marketing at BarkBox, said that she had seen the item with her own eyes before the promo went live and she was actually expecting a different type of reaction from it.

“I mean, the butts are super funny, so, of course, I was expecting people to talk about them,” Nelson said. She added that she expected negative reactions from animal rights activists, because of the item depicts an entire pig, rolled up and cooked in one piece.

So when she looked at the comments on Facebook, she noticed that the reactions had nothing to do with animal cruelty.

Finding the reactions funny, she and her team worked on joining in on the fun and giving witty replies to the naughty comments.

Stacie Grissom, Head of Content at BARK, which owns BarkBox, was thrilled at the response.

“It just communicates — we’re here and trying to have fun and trying to make your dog happy.”