Adam & Eve (business)

Infobox Company
name = Adam & Eve

type = Private
genre =
foundation = North Carolina, U.S. (1970)
founder = Phil Harvey
location_city = Hillsborough, North Carolina
location_country = U.S.
location =
locations =
area_served =
key_people =
industry = Adult novelties and videos
products =
services =
revenue =
operating_income =
net_income =
assets =
equity =
owner =
num_employees =
parent = PHE, Inc.
divisions =
subsid =
slogan =
homepage = [http://www.adameve.com/ AdamEve.com]
footnotes =
intl =

Adam & Eve is a marketer of adult products that sells sex toys and adult movies, as well as funding non-profit social marketing organizations that address issues such as population growth, disease control and sex education in developing countries.

Origins

Adam & Eve was founded in 1970 by physician Tim Black and Phil Harvey as a mail order catalog selling contraceptives through non-medical channels.

Harvey, having just returned from India as a part of the CARE pre-school feeding program, concluded that poor family planning was the source of many social problems. While still a graduate student at the University of North Carolina's School of Public Health, Harvey and Black conceived Adam & Eve to fund a non-profit organization in hopes of using the profits to finance family-planning programs in developing countries, [http://www.motherjones.com/commentary/notebook/2002/11/ma_158_01.html Hard-Core Philanthropist, Mother Jones 2002] ] . With a Ford Foundation fellowship the men devised a plan to use social-marketing in the U.S. and with university consent the two men began writing witty ad copy ("What will you get her this Christmas -- pregnant?") and advertising condoms in the mail. After running ads in 300 of the largest college newspapers the orders started and didn’t stop. Though selling condoms via the mail was in violation of the Comstock Act Harvey and Black knew the law was rarely enforced. Success ensued and the men began to see a profit, "The mail-order condom market was just sitting there waiting for somebody," recalls Harvey. "We'd sit down at the end of the week and pay our bills and I'd say, 'There seems to be some money leftover here.' That's about how much we knew about business."

Philanthropy

Population Services International

With business generating more than enough revenue to cover costs, the partners wondered if the condom business could create enough of a profit to finance overseas social-marketing projects. If so they would have the ability to bypass conventional donors and function with complete autonomy. With that the men launched Population Services International (PSI) and by 1975 were conducting condom marketing programs in Bangladesh and Kenya. Though Harvey left his position as the director in the late 1970’s, PSI still sells birth control and health products in over 60 countries and is prominent in international family planning.

DKT International

In the late 1970’s Harvey turned his brain to running Adam & Eve but within a few years heard the philanthropic call and launched DKT International. DKT International focuses on family planning and AIDS Prevention in low-income countries such as Ethiopia, Malaysia and Sudan. Since the start, DKT International has sold over 1.6 billion condoms utilizing culturally unique promotion and packaging. Though the financial relationship between DKT International and Adam & Eve is downplayed, it is very strong, with Adam & Eve providing about 12% of DKT’s annual budget. While its biggest programs draw funding from government agencies and foundations its private funding allows DKT International to be a more innovative and agile participant in its discipline , [http://www.motherjones.com/commentary/notebook/2002/11/ma_158_01.html Hard-Core Philanthropist, Mother Jones 2002] ] .

References

Additional Reading

* [http://www.psi.org/ Population Services International]
* [http://www.dktinternational.org/default.htm DKT International]

External links

* [http://www.adameve.com/ AdamEve.com]