Adam&Eve
| Adam&Eve | |
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| Company information | |
| Company type: | Private company |
| Industry | Adult E-Comm |
| Products | Sex toys, personal lubricants, condoms |
| Website: | www.adameve.com |
| Locations: | Hillsborough, NC, U.S. |
| Founded: | Chapel Hill, NC, U.S. - 1970 |
| Founder: | Phil Harvey Tim Black |
| Parent | PHE, Inc. |
Adam & Eve is a conglomerate company that sells products through E-Commerce that include: 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. Founder Phil Harvey has been called "one of the most influential figures in the American sex industry today". Its parent company, PHE Inc., is the largest private employer in Hillsborough, North Carolina, where its headquarters are situated.
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.
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,. 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?") 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."
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. In 2019, Adam & Eve acquired the Excite Group, Australia's largest online adult retailer.
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 1970’s Harvey turned his brain to running Adam & Eve but within a few years heard the philanthropic call and launched DKT International. DKT International focuses on family planning and AIDS Prevention in low-income countries such as Ethiopia, Malaysia and Sudan. Since the start, DKT International has sold over 1.6 billion condoms utilizing culturally unique promotion and packaging. Though the financial relationship between DKT International and Adam & Eve is downplayed, it is very strong, with Adam & Eve providing about 12% of DKT’s annual budget. While its biggest programs draw funding from government agencies and foundations its private funding allows DKT International to be a more innovative and agile participant in its discipline.
Cable TV marketing
As of August 2021, 'Adam and Eve' company has been marketing its products on cable TV in early morning time slots.
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