As charity stunts go, this one is certainly bold. The people behind viral video production company Simple Pick Up took a vibrating saddle sex toy to a busy beach earlier this week and asked bikini clad women to sit on it, ostensibly to raise awareness and money for FGM prevention charity Orchid Project.They told the participating women that for every second they were able to sit on the so-called Sybian, the company would donate five dollars to the charity. And it worked: as you can see from the video, which is now going viral, women obliged (some even enjoyed) and the company claim to have raised $1335 (£786) in just one day. Incidentally, this isn't quite NSFW, but if you work in a particularly conservative office, you might want to consider turning the volume down, or watching it on your phone or something...
The only problem? They forgot to tell the charity about this thinly veiled opportunity for some ‘bros’ to watch some hot girls have an orgasm, sorry - 'charity' stunt. When we spoke to Orchid Project this morning, they emphatically told us that they had no affiliation with the video - and have actually returned the donation. 'Orchid Project did receive an unsolicited donation from Simple Pickup with no prior notice or contact. As soon as we became aware of this we returned the donation in full earlier today (8 May),' David Adam, Development Co-Ordinator at Orchid Project told The Debrief.
'We feel that fundraising in that way, without our endorsement or consent, is not appropriate and more importantly is not respectful to the communities we work with.' He added. 'Fundraising and awareness raising around a subject like female genital cutting is vital to our work and we always work in ways that are respectful and match our values and ethos. We would encourage everyone to approach us and we will work with them to achieve this.'
Which, I think we can all agree sounds far more sensible that allowing yourself to be filmed on a vibrating sex toy, right? Still - if we had to find a silver lining in all this, at least the video's made us talk about FGM again? No, even that doesn't massively work.
Follow Sophie on Twitter @sophiecullinane
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.