The company, Lora DiCarlo, says it entered CES’ annual Innovation Awards to showcase the technology behind its female pleasure gadget called the Osé. Soon after celebrating that achievement the company says it was notified by CES it was rescinding the award because those in charge found it offensive and inappropriate. A company rep told me after attorneys got involved CES seemed to back off and call it a misunderstanding, adding the gadget should have never been allowed as an entry.
Despite the bad news the company says it pushed ahead and managed to get into CES. I stumbled onto the story because I thought the gadget was a shoulder massager and when I walked by I said, “Boy, I could use that about now…” the woman laughed and said, “I don’t think so…” – after I realized I need glasses the woman told me she had a good story for me.
She handed me this card and we began our interview
This is the gadget causing all the ruckus
The woman I spoke with beamed with pride when she spoke about the tech involved in the product, which is very intuitive and includes micro-robotics. The tech has eight patents and engineers from top universities had a hand in its development. But, the smile quickly turned into a frown when she spoke about the gender-bias her company has experienced. The founder of Lora DiCarlo issued an open letter about the whole thing
At this point it was time for me to get CES’ view of events. I was in the media center editing this interview so I walked over to one of the media reps and they took my card – minutes later I got this response from a PR firm:
Hi Steve,
Please see below for CTA’s statement on the matter:
The product referenced does not fit into any of our existing product categories and should not have been accepted for the Innovation Awards Program. CES does not have a category for sex toys. CTA had communicated this position to Lora DiCarlo nearly two months ago and we have apologized to them for our mistake.
Thanks!
You can hear my interview with the Lora DiCarlo rep here