It’s perhaps one of the most compelling reasons why awards ceremonies are so compelling: the prospect of a trophy going to a dark horse or an underdog is precisely the kind of mystery that makes us want to watch. We've seen it during the Oscars and other major awards ceremonies time and time again: An unexpected winner is announced, followed by a moment of stunned silence, and then comes the applause, often accompanied by the distinct expression of “What just happened?” on the faces of the other nominees and audience members.
Though hardly the Oscars, AVN’s “O” Awards proved it could compete with the best of them when it served up a most unanticipated winner at the second annual ceremony, held at the Westin Diplomat in Hollywood, Fla. on Aug. 7. The category was “Outstanding Distributor (East),” and even winners Dean Elliott and Neal Slateford were shocked when their company, LoveHoney LLC, was announced as the winner.
Why?
Not because LoveHoney is a relative newcomer to the U.S. market, or because it beat out seven familiar favorites already well-established in the industry. Not even because it snatched the top honor from the previous year’s winner, mega-distributor East Coast News. So why all the fuss? The answer is simple. LoveHoney—in the strictest sense of the word—isn’t really a distributor at all. At least not in the lexicon of the “O” Awards.
While it’s true that LoveHoney is the U.K.’s leading online retailer, the firm’s Dallas-based wholesale operation is a more humble enterprise centered mainly on its unique “Sqweel” product as well as a handful of other best-selling LoveHoney brand products. So, while the company could technically be coinsidered a distributor of its own items—as numerous other manufacturers are—LoveHoney does not yet traffic in the kind of distribution model recognized by the “O” Awards as a “distributor” as characterized by the other nominees, most of which handle thousands of SKU’s from scores (if not hundreds) of brands.
So, ironically, it came as no surprise that Elliot and Slateford’s surprise was equal if not greater than that of the audience when their name was announced by Tony Lovett, publisher of AVN and host of the event. Literally bounding onto the stage, the duo gleefully accepted their award with a combination of both bemusement and amusement.
“Yes, it was a surprise,” said Neal Slateford of Love Honey LLC. “We were half expecting BP to step up next to win an award for Services to the Environment!”
Needless to say, some of the other nominees were less than amused.
Before the show had even come to an end, salacious rumors and burning questions were already making their way through the crowd: What happened? How did Love Honey LLC win? Was there graft or sexual favors involved? Had someone slipped LSD into AVN’s water? Was it a conspiracy involving the FreeMasons and/or the Vatican? Should they give the award back?
To address the latter, the simple answer is no. The reason, however, is a little more complicated but amounts to this: LoveHoney won fair and square. Kind of.
“The problem was not in the voting,” said Sherri L. Shaulis, senior editor of Pleasure Products for AVN. “LoveHoney LLC was pre-nominated by industry professionals, and received the majority of votes from our independent panel. The problem was in the vetting process for the category, which is quite rigorous. This one, unfortunately, slipped past me."
Shaulis was not alone.
“The 'O' Awards are only in their second year, and mistakes are bound to be made,” said Lovett. “I’d have nightmares about typo-riddled trophies and the like, but this particular error is one that I never imagined. Much to our chagrin, it appears to have gotten by all of us.” Theorizing as to how the error occurred, Lovett said, “It was a simple matter of thinking that the nominators and voters knew something we didn't. And we were wrong. We failed at two things: being clear about how we define “distributor,” and weeding out those who weren’t really qualified.”
Though he briefly considered seppuku to compensate for the error, Lovett eventually settled on a less dramatic though equally sincere gesture. “To all the other nominees—Capitol News, East Coast News, GVA-TWN, MJM Novelty Sales, Nalpac Ltd, Net 1 on 1, and Williams Trading—I offer my most sincere apologies,” said Lovett. “And my promise that this won’t ever happen again.”
LoveHoney’s competitors, though rightly ruffled, showed their true colors in the graciousness of their understanding of the situation.
“We appreciate the awareness that there was a mistake,” said Brian Herbstman of East Coast News. “However, we are just pleased that we were nominated. LoveHoney is a great company and we are happy that they received an award—not so happy that a manufacturer won [the award] for distributor, but happy their hard work and efforts are noticed. It has opened our eyes that we still have much to do to assure we are on the stage next year.”
"This obviously is not a perfect process yet," Shaulis said. “And though the “O” Awards are already highly coveted, we’re still growing. Unfortunately, sometimes our growing pains are very public.”
AVN officials are reviewing the vetting process for nominations as well as category definitions for the “O” Awards in order to avoid similar problems in the future.
For a complete list of winners from the 2010 “O” Awards, visit AVN.com.
