Pornhub wants to save the world from plastics. Unfortunately, the campaign isn't what it seems

Last week, the world's most notorious pornography outlet, Pornhub, which sees around 40 million global visitors per day, launched a pornographic film titled Dirtiest Porn Ever. Since most of us are aware that the titles of pornographic films often contain hyperbole, it begs the question: what’s made its release newsworthy? Well, the campaign behind it.

The film stars popular “amateur” couple Leolulu, who have more than 151,000 followers on Instagram, engaging in some X-rated action on a beach – one of the world’s most polluted with plastic. Each time the porno is played to the end, Pornhub says it will make a donation to Ocean Polymers, a non-profit that specialises in solutions to collect and process plastic waste from the world’s oceans.

“We’re dirty here at Pornhub, but that doesn’t mean our beaches need to be,” said Corey Price, vice president of Pornhub, in a statement. “Twelve million tons of plastic can be found within the depths of our oceans. What’s perhaps even more shocking, is that scientists predict that there will be more plastic than fish within our oceans in only 30 years. Ocean pollution has grown to become one of the most significant global issues of our lifetime, and it's only getting worse. That's why it’s imperative that we use our platform to raise awareness and inspire change – not just for the time being but for generations to come.”

To me, the fact that a morally dubious pornography empire, associated with exploiting porn performers and facilitating piracy as well as developing the technology used as part of the UK’s questionable porn block law, is prepared to acknowledge the current state of the environment indicates that it has more gall than many of the world’s governments.

It is also worth mentioning that this is not Pornhub’s first foray into activism. The brand has an ongoing outreach initiative, Pornhub Cares (yes, seriously) which, in the last few years, has raised awareness of bee pollination, via its “Beesexual” campaign, which saw the creation of a new channel full of “bee porn”. This saw videos of foraging bees that includes voiceovers by adult entertainment stars). In 2014, the brand planted one tree for every 100 videos watched in its “big dick” category, for its Pornhub Gives America Wood campaign.

As gimmicks go, no harm done. However, the brand’s latest campaign demonstrates its willingness to promote its own virtue-signalling by co-opting environmental causes – without any indication that they are attempting to address even the most basic issues surrounding environmental degradation.

The 11-minute Dirtiest Porn Ever video itself sees people in Pornhub-branded boiler suits clearing up the mounds of plastic that have washed up onto the beach, while the slim, Caucasian, heterosexual couple engage in a range of sex acts. But it also highlights the superficiality of the environmental lobby movement in the west. Why? Because, as is the case in virtually all mainstream media, there is no reference to the fact that people of colour in the global south – the film is shot in the Caribbean – will likely be the most affected by environmental degradation.

Rising sea levels due to global warming could completely wipe out many of the low-lying tropical islands, such as the one in the film, and displace entire populations. We're already seeing the effects now, with hurricanes like Irma having been exacerbated by climate change. The brand could have easily acknowledged this serious factor in the film. Instead, it chose to promote something that will likely barely scratch the surface in terms of its impact on the environment – even if it does prove to be popular.

In my mind, if Pornhub was sincere in its involvement in the environmental causes lobby, it would engage with some of the root causes of plastic pollution, rather than chasing hits.

Decolonising Contraception – a not-for-profit, community interest group formed by people of colour working within sexual and reproductive health – is a movement that promotes discussion about the history of sexuality and reproductive health within previously colonised populations. We regularly speak about inequalities faced by marginalised people when it comes to the full spectrum of human sexuality. This includes the ethics of pornography.

As a society, we need to be able to critique and integrate pornographic material in the same ways in which we would all other media. At present, societal taboos surrounding the discussion of pornography mean that we don’t call out all the despicable misogynist, transphobic racist tropes and stereotypes constantly reproduced in the genre.

Pornhub’s rapid brand expansion and global recognisability is well-documented. We already know that its content is so widely consumed that marketing agencies actually use their annual porn survey to analyse more general trends in global internet usage.

At least that means Pornhub's piecemeal activism gets some traction. At the time of writing, Dirtiest Porn Ever has had 1,290,340 views. Remember, I watched the film so that you don’t have to.