Oprah's Sexual Health Episodes
         The Day Oprah Endorsed A Sex Toy
           With Dr. Laura Berman During "Your Best Life Ever" Series

It was an average Friday and we at Holistic Wisdom were getting things ready to wrap things up for the weekend on January 9, 2009 but something very unusual was starting to happen. At about 2:30 p.m. Mountain Standard Time we began to get an odd number of orders for the same product... a product that we typically don't sell often- the Aphrodite Vibrator. At first, we thought that it was some possible scam, but after tenuously looking at the individual orders, we realized they were all checking out. Not only that, but we were getting several for them every minute!

Lisa S. Lawless, Ph.D., C.E.O. Holistic Wisdom Founder

We contacted one of the customers who had requested a rushed delivery and asked her the date that she needed it by as well as how she had decided to purchase the Aphrodite. She chuckled and said "Well, Oprah of course, it was on the Oprah show today." At this time it was 3:30 p.m. our time and Oprah had already ended on the East coast, was now mid-way through the show on Central Time and was about to start in our time zone. We scrambled to the television to watch, while our buyer was frantically trying to secure every Aphrodite through the manufacturer and every wholesale distributor out there.

Being featured was Dr. Laura Berman, a fellow sexologist- someone I highly respect and whom I have had the privilege of working with on her radio show. I knew she was doing a few Oprah episodes, but had no idea she was going to be featuring her products. No one in the adult industry did for that matter, and that is when the insanity began. It turns out that Berman was only given 2 weeks notice so it was impossible for the manufacturer to prepare for the avalanche of sales that occurred from the power of Oprah.

The Aphrodite, which Oprah dubbed as "The Sure Thing" to help women achieve an orgasm, was not in stock through the manufacturer who told us when we called that not only did they not have any, but they were not expecting any to come in until March and since then have found that some delay could make it as late as June! We were stunned and began feeling rather overwhelmed as one order after another for them came flying in.

We immediately updated our web site to show them as back ordered. After over a dozen calls, we were told by every wholesale distributor that we had just bought them out of their entire stock. This was terrible as we were only able to secure a couple of them through each distributor... a total of 15 units and we had already sold a hundred times that!

I spoke with several people in the sex toy industry and heard that some companies had already left for the weekend when the Oprah show aired and had no idea what was happening. Then there were others that knew, but decided not to tell customers that they were out of stock. One company let over 3,000 orders go through over the weekend with no warning to consumers that they would not be getting it until March and have had to continually update them only to have the estimate time be as late in some cases as June.

We decided to email the customers that had ordered from us before we had a chance to put the back order warning on our site and let them know. Then we placed the first mass order to secure them for customers for March - June and were finally able to fill them all during that time.

We have been asked as to whether it is a sure thing. Here is what we want our customers to know-

Vibrator Considerations

Sex toys are a very personal thing and finding what is right for you may take some exploration. Just some considerations to keep in mind are-

Intensity
How powerful do you want your vibrator to be? Power can make all the difference in the world. It affects the intensity of stimulation and can mean the difference between reaching orgasm and not.

Rechargeable Pros & Cons
Rechargeable sex toys do not require batteries and are therefore, better for the environment and less expensive to maintain. Depending on the quality of the toy, they may not hold the charge for long. These may also require long charging periods and may not work unless fully charged; making it important to plan on having it charged before your next use. Some rechargeables may not allow you to use it while it is charging.

Plug In Pros & Cons
Electric sex toys are often some of the most powerful vibrators and offer a deep vibration that others cannot compare to. You do not have to worry about costly batteries, the effect of batteries on the environment or planning to make sure your toy is charged. These can limit how far you can move around (we recommend getting an extension cord). The cord may get tangled or get in the way during wild sexual adventures. These also cannot ever get wet as they may create the risk of electrical shock. We recommend wiping down with a moist wash cloth when it is unplugged that has been sprayed with sex toy cleaner.

Stimulation
What part of your body do you want to stimulate and do you want to stimulate more than one part at a time. There are single, dual and triple action vibrators that allow you to stimulate up to three different erogenous zones as a time. One of the most popular among women is the dual action vibrator that stimulates both the gspot and clitoris at the same time.

Is Any Sex Toy A Sure Thing?

As you can see there is a lot of thought that can go into getting the right vibrator for you and/or your lover and holding up one and saying that it is the "sure thing" is a bit over generalized. Nothing is a sure thing. There are all kinds of reasons why one vibrator may not be as effective as another for someone. That is why we encourage customers to contact us if they have questions before they purchase from us so that we can help them find the right one for them. After all, you would not say that one pair of shoes is going to be the best pair of shoes for everyone right? People need different styles, functions and sizes and no pair of shoes nor a sex toy will meet everyone's needs. For more information on sex toys, please see our sex toy education center.