2009 is a breakthrough for the advertising of erotica piped into the home, for it marks the debut of the "Erotic Network" ad campaign. And what is it that makes this campaign unique in the anals -- er, annals -- of adult channel advertising history? Typical ads for adult channels have centered on steamy (if censored) snippets telegraphing the kind of action you can expect to get on this channel. Sexy voiced vixens throatily intone on the hotness, wetness, and sexiness of their broadcast fare, narrating flashes of skin and sin.

But the Erotic Network has taken a wholly different tack. Its ad series centers on a bearded, guitar-toting interloper who pops in on folks -- individuals or in couples -- to strum and sing a folksy tune (reminiscent of Bob Dylan's Blowin' In the Wind, in fact) reassuring customers (always seated on the couch) that they indeed have the right to watch porn. In fact, a line common to all versions of the song says "there's nothing you can't do in your own home." The purpose of the commercial seems not so much to advertise the product as to reassure people that they -- like the normal looking folks who are plum pleased to be the recipients of this serenade -- that it is just fine and dandy to import crackling wisps of electrified porn into your household.

And, well, naturally it is. But this is bold. This is a producer of the goods not just honing in on those who already yearn for erotica without shame, but those who may be on the fence about whether its okay, and simply need a friendly and innocuous sort of person to tell them, yeah, it's okay. The ads actually take a two-prong attack on the question, first pitching the libertarian notion that what you watch what you wish under your own roof, and the second equating sex films with love, suggesting it as a product that can promote conjugal bliss. The tagline even is "The Erotic Networks fill your home with love." Here at last is the long-awaited ad campaign lightheartedly promoting the liberating message of the right to enjoy porn behind closed doors and with positive results.