If one were to download the PDF version of this year’s AVN nominations in 120 categories it would result in a document 58 pages long. By contrast, the 1984 awards contained only 18 categories.
The big winner that year was Scoundrels, about the consequences of adultery. Today we commit adultery over coffee.
This reflects both the nichification of consumer tastes as well as the need to satisfy as many advertisers with nominations as possible. AVN will officially maintain that advertising within the company’s media network does not buy awards, but that is only partially true; advertisers expect more consideration for their products and AVN, XBiz, and all adult trade publications of the past and future would be foolish not to provide it.
Read more after the gap.
But buying awards is an inexact science, and what is successful for one potential winner might not be for another. So I have no advice other than that Superbowl tickets are a great stocking stuffer for people of any faith, and blowjobs are pleasant all year long.
But let’s talk about consumer taste. By 1984, when the AVN Awards were announced on paper, “commercial” porn had been around for decades, but it was still illegal in many places and delivery systems like video were not widespread. 1984’s 18 categories reflected no fetishes like Asian, MILF, POV, Latina, Interracial, Anime, or Transsexual; those have evolved from availability and saturation (of the market, not necessarily Squirting).
This year’s nominations are the most comprehensive in AVN’s history, and at no time in the company’s 24 years has the list of nominations shrunk from one year to the next.
With the weight of a quarter-century, the nominations have no choice but to get post-modern: awards for marketing movies and performers have increased to nine, the Crossover Star award has been renamed in honor of Jenna Jameson, and companies that make “classic”-style porn or that re-release ancient porn catalogs also have their own category.
This is the second year of the Unsung Starlet and Contract Performer award, which reflect both the hardest and least used talent in the business who haven’t otherwise been honored in Best Actress or Best New Starlet categories.
At the 2008 AVN Awards on January 12, most of the 120 citations will not be presented on stage; a video screen will flash the winners in between more significant awards. Last year’s presentation, which was the first awards held at the Mandalay Bay Events Center and also the first awards for which regular consumers were encouraged to buy tickets, was also the slickest; still, by awards show standards, the AVN’s are a train wreck.
And I like it that way. Long-time attendees will happily claim “but it’s our train wreck”, meaning that a shambling free-for-all filled with technical glitches, bombast, people playing dress-up, preening, and unintentional humor are a celebration of what Porn Valley is like every day.
If an outside company comes in to “handle” the awards, as might be the logical evolution of porn’s mainstreaming, the January adult industry reunion will lose something, even as it gains a larger audience.
I predict the adult industry can sustain a 200-category awards show before things fall apart, but I better make some money off of it.
Previously: AVN 2007 wrap-up; AVN 2006
See also: AVN Awards
Okay, gotta take issue with a couple of things; I’m not an AVN apologist, and as I said last night on Playboy radio, when I ran the magazine, I had a sign on my office wall reading “If it’s being done right, it’s not being done here.”
But… as the mother of a child you are extremely fond of will attest, BEFORE I took that job at AVN, I was one of their biggest critics. I wrote articles proclaiming without doubt that the awards were all bought and sold, and when I took the job, I assured my friends in the industry that if I found proof that the awards were rigged, I was gonna blow the lid off.
I didn’t. They aren’t.
It’s no fun to believe, and I’m not claiming that there isn’t pressure. I know an editor after me made it a habit to lobby with freelancers for titles he liked, but that sure as hell didn’t happen during my five years, and I don’t believe it’s happening currently.
As for advertising, we never denied that advertisers were given consideration during nominations. It is an undeniable fact that we nominated some absolute crap because an advertiser had pushed it really hard. But we did it with the understanding that it didn’t have a chance of winning.
It’s also an undeniable fact that we nominated a load of stuff from people who didn’t advertise at all. Anabolic routinely got nominated, and had no ads running at all. We called to be them to send voting copies, and they routinely refused, then complained about not winning.
When Miscreants won Best Video, Extreme was taking 1/3 strip ads only, and I cannot TELL YOU the amount of heat we took for that. Several majors pulled ads for a while in protest. But it won, so it won.
A better example might be Corruption. Obviously, we beat out many of the majors for a few big awards, and the most advertising SexZ has ever taken is two spreads. Right now we’re down to two pages, and we got 22 noms.
Where blowjobs are concerned: Never. Not once. In five years. Believe me, I wouldn’t have said no. Closest I ever got was giving Alisha Klass a birthday spanking.
The only person who ever tried to buy me off for anything was Chuck Martino, and he offered me twenty bucks.
One other thing; you’re wrong that the number of categories never went down. I cut 17 during my tenure. Count from ’97 to ’01 and you’ll see they drop every year. Once Ramone got in, they went crazy and added 18 in one year.
Oh, and Best Contract Starlet is gone. Lasted one year. They folded it back into Female Performer. Also, with the long-overdue abolition of the film categories next year (which I fought for every year), look for the number of categories to drop next year.