A brand ambassador is “a person who represents and advertises a company, supports its offers and acts as the embodiment of the company’s corporate identity through words and actions.” Most major companies employ them; often the role is filled by professional athletes or celebrities. Pornhub’s brand ambassador is American porn actress and director Asa Akira, who has appeared in nearly 700 porn flicks and has hosted the Pornhub Awards ceremony several times.
Pornhub, as my regular readers will know, has been under a constant cloud of scandal for several years now, as allegations—recently confessed to by Pornhub executives—of profiting from sex trafficking and abuse have dogged the smut giant. Considering that fact, it is mindboggling—and a bit on the nose—that Akira has maintained her role as the public face of Pornhub. Indeed, the company recently sent out a tweet celebrating their loyal employee: “Happy birthday to our wonderful brand ambassador @AsaAkira! She continues to astound us with her kindness and beauty. Give her some love in the comments.”
Back in 2021, Akira made headlines for stating, on a podcast with artist David Choe, that she would rape a 13-year-old boy. Talking about inviting a 13-year-old to a jacuzzi at a beach house, they assert that it wouldn’t be rape because he’d be lucky. “This 13-year-old I think I would,” Akira said. “He wasn’t necessarily an old-looking 13-year-old. You look at him, and he’s definitely a child.” Chloe replies: “That shouldn’t be considered statutory rape and, like, it’s consensual…” Akira agrees: “No, that definitely, no one would consider that rape, except maybe his mom.”
When confronted with these statements later, Akira’s response was on-brand: “Snitches get stitches.”
Not incidentally, Pornhub is currently being sued by a 12-year-old boy victim for profiting from 23 videos of his drugged sexual assaults, perpetrated by a predator named Rocky Franklin in Alabama (Franklin was sentenced to forty years behind bars). These videos were approved by Pornhub as “pay-to-download content” and the company received 35% of sales and ad revenue.
Akira’s justification of statutory rape is only one in a laundry list of vile statements. On another podcast: “I love incest. I think as long as you don’t have babies, incest should be legal.” In a tweet from September 27, 2011: “…It’s not really rape unless it’s anal rape, right?” From October 31, 2013: “Adulthood is knowing the difference between good rape and bad rape.” February 29, 2012: “Also—I’m pretty proud of myself for making it this far in life without having to register as a sex offender.” September 8, 2011: “Is GHB the rape drug? Asking for a friend.” January 28, 2013: “It only hurts if you resist.”
And a tweet that, in retrospect, could be directed at any number of Pornhub uploaders: “Shoutout to my pedophiles.”
These statements, it must be emphasized, were not made by some obscure Pornhub employee. They were made by the company’s brand ambassador, the person chosen to represent the company as its most public-facing frontwoman. Pornhub’s social media celebration of Akira came after her statements endorsing statutory rape and other sexual crimes were made public and received much press attention. Despite the fact that Pornhub has been frantically attempting to fend off allegations of precisely the sort of behavior their brand ambassador gleefully celebrated and joked about, Akira has kept her job and their loyalty.
The truth, of course, is that Asa Akira’s public statements do represent Pornhub’s values. Her sexual values are Pornhub’s sexual values. Her defenses of sexual crimes are de facto defenses of much of their content. It may be surprising, from a corporate point of view, that Pornhub has retained Akira as their brand ambassador while attempting to recast themselves as beleaguered artists under attack by puritanical prudes. But it may be one of the few genuinely honest decisions that disgusting company has ever made.
