The Multibillion-Dollar Porn Industry Has Raised A Pathetic $411K To Fight Prop. 60—Here’s Who’s Contributed The Most
Depending on who you ask, the porn industry is valued at anywhere between $5 and $12 billion in the United States. (That figure jumps to almost $100 billion if you consider the global market.) Even if the porn industry is worth $5 billion (the low end of estimates), why has the industry’s campaign to fight Proposition 60—California’s “mandatory condom” ballot measure—only raised a paltry $411,768?
If industry executives and studio owners were truly committed to stopping Prop. 60, you would think they’d be pouring everything they have into television spots, print ads, mailers, and online/viral videos. The “No” on 60 people have produced just one YouTube video, which was released back in June.
Other than this video, the only anti-Prop. 60 messaging I’ve seen here in California is porn stars changing their Twitter avatars. And, sorry to say, but the overwhelming majority of California voters are not following porn stars on Twitter. I was visiting relatives in Northern California earlier this month, and they (like most people) hadn’t even heard of Prop. 60. When I summarized the law (as it will read on their ballots), they said it sounded like an obvious and reasonable proposition.
There are still three weeks to raise money and get the message out, but the fact that the multibillion-dollar adult industry hasn’t even contributed half a million this late in the game—compared to the “Yes” campaign’s whopping $4.6 million, every single dollar of which has come from Michael Weinstein’s AHF—suggests that they’re disastrously unorganized, or maybe they don’t really care about Prop. 60 passing after all? Or, maybe the industry isn’t really worth the billions that it claims to be.
Here is a list of studios, adult industry groups, and other donors who have contributed the most to stop Prop. 60. Most of these are straight porn companies with nondescript DBA names (Dime Systems, Pro Data Tech, Multimedia LLC). The “biggest” contributors are Vivid and Wicked, with $54,000 and $49,000, respectively. Someone named Jeffrey Greenberg is the next biggest donor, with $40,000. AEBN—a straight porn conglomerate based in North Carolina that also owns the so-called largest producer of gay adult entertainment (Raging Hot Falcon and NakedSword)—has contributed an embarrassing $4,999. Treasure Island Media has given even less, having plopped in a measly $4,663 (although in fairness, that’s likely more than what they’ve paid in model scene rates for all of 2016). Note that foreign-based studios (i.e. Mindgeek—the biggest one of all) are not legally allowed to make monetary donations to U.S. ballot measure campaigns.
Web Data Solutions: $10,000
John Stagliano: $39,999
PHE Inc.: $25,000
Scott Taylor: $10,000
California Democratic Party: $16,007
Treasure Island Media: $4,663
Jeffrey Greenberg/WealthyMen.com: $40,000
AEBN (Raging Hot Falcon, NakedSword, etc.): $4,999
Wicked: $48,999
Multimedia LLC: $25,000
Dime Systems: $10,000
Pro Data Tech: $10,000
Free Speech Coalition: $21,600
Vivid: $53,999
Cybernet (Kink.com): $33,285
Full list of contributors here.
For perspective on just how pathetic these contributions are, look at the hundreds of millions of dollars that other groups opposing other California ballot measures have raised. For example: the tobacco industry has contributed more than $66 million to fight a cigarette tax increase, anti-death penalty groups have contributed nearly $10 million to fight a pro-death penalty measure, and the plastics industry has contributed more than $6 million to overturn a ban on plastic bags. Apparently, people who make plastic bags are more invested in their business than people who make porn.
