Soccer Star Sex Toys Recalled and Unwilling Namesakes Compensated
GERMANY — While imitation may be the highest form of flattery, when reproducing a famous person’s genitals for sale as a sex toy, it might be best to make sure they really want to be memorialized for what they stash in their underwear. Of course, reproducing someone’s genitals for sale as a sex toy naturally results in at least one question; namely: how did the company find out what the originals look like?That’s certainly one of many questions that might be asked of German sex shop chain Beate Uhse, which has just been informed that it will spit out 50,000 euros ($67,380) to the country’s popular soccer players Michael Ballack and Oliver Kahn. While that may be hard for the company to swallow, finding themselves – or reproductions of a very specific part of themselves – available for erotic purchase, was something that the two buff boys found themselves choking over.
Dubbed the “Michael B.” and “Ollie K.” vibrators, the two toys were marketed prior to the World Cup in 2006, which was hosted in Germany. While the company may have thought it had cleverly covered its hind end while hawking the front ends of its sports heroes in its three shops, the northern Hamburg court determined on Friday that pretty much anyone could figure out whose Johnsons the toys were supposed to represent, even without their last names being spelled out.
Bayern Munich goalkeeper Kahn and Chelsea midfielder and national team captain Ballack took Beate Uhse to court, claiming that the replicants were created and distributed without their permission. The court agreed, with a representative for the company today assuring the world that “the products have been withdrawn” and that 50,000 euro payments would be made to each of the men for their distress.
The players had originally asked for 60,000 euros ($81,000) each in damages.