Trojan Vibrator Carts Make a Comeback as Bloomberg Flip Flops on Orgasms

If certain outraged libertarians are to be believed, Bloomberg vs. Orgasms is the new Bloomberg vs. Soda. When the condom company Trojan put up two “pleasure carts” on Wednesday with the goal of giving out 10,000 vibrating sex toys, the city was quick to shut them down, and people were quick to compare the shutdowns to Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s soda policy.

The comparison would have been valid, except for one reason: the city had every right to remove the carts. They weren’t shut down out of a desire to maintain some puritanical standard of morality or to make choices for New York’s citizens. Rather, crowd control issues and permit problems were the source of Trojan’s troubles.

Hundreds of people were lined up at each of the carts in order to receive their free sex toys. Even though the goods were being distributed for free, Trojan was still required to pay a fee to acquire commercial enterprise permits, which they had not yet done.

Luckily, this story has a happy ending: after Trojan paid $3,100 for permits, the carts were allowed to be set back up. Between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Thursday evening, roughly 4,000 free vibrators were distributed. The NY Daily News reported that waits for vibrators lasted as long as 45 minutes.

The moral of this story is to pause before jumping to the conclusion that the government is trying to control and ban everything fun. Sometimes, simple logistical concerns are to blame.

According to the NY Post, retail value for the sex toys ranges from $30-40, which means that over $10,000 worth of sex toys were given out on Thursday. No wonder why New Yorkers were so excited.