Adult entertainment legend and AVN Hall of Famer Ron Jeremy has cut a television commercial for Canadian Internet music store Puretracks which warns against the alleged hazards - porn, viruses - of free peer-to-peer file-swapping networks.
Jeremy appears in the spot in a red velour jogging suit, directing an adult scene, in the background of a teenager's room where the kid is downloading music on his computer, oblivious to Jeremy and his activity, with the action freezing when Mom knocks on the bedroom door.
This spot and a companion spot air after 9 p.m. on parent-oriented programming, according to the National Post.
"The music sites that are out there right now and which are being used by teenagers, especially younger teens, are just riddled with pornography and viruses and spyware," Toronto agency Cyclops Partners president John Farquhar told the Post. "When we presented that information to parents, they were completely unaware of it. We had to find a way to put together a commercial that could simply and impactfully put that forward."
"It's a very clever scene," Jeremy told AVNOnline.com, adding he got a "nice plug" on Regis and Kelly Live. "A kid is downloading, and they advertise there'll be no porn and no viruses. Very friendly for children, parents will love it, and they show what will not happen.
"In one scene there's these guys dressed in black kidnapping the kid, they're the viruses, and it says this will not happen," he continued. "And right behind, I'm directing a scene with a bunch of porn stars, a couple on the bed dressed but sexy dressed, and when the mom comes in we freeze, I go 'Hold it!' And she walks out, and it's 'Action!' and we continue."
Jeremy said he didn't know what it was going to be used for, when he was first booked for the commercial spot, which has been played widely on Canadian television in the hours after 9 p.m. "I got called from the Canadian union which made a deal with (the Screen Actors' Guild) which I'm a member of," he said. "But a commercial's a commercial. And I don't want kids to look for music and get porn by accident. I'm a big fan of porn, but I think it's really wrong to try to get kids to see it in a very sneaky way. If you have to rely on that to get traffic, you should just go out of business."
Jeremy - whose friends include Lars Ulrich, drummer for Metallica, outspoken opponents of free P2P file networks - said he understands "both sides" of the peer-to-peer file swapping controversy, but believes it's unfair to recording artists and filmmakers whose work ends up in files swapped by the millions for free.
"I've followed the situation fairly well, I have good friends on both sides," he said. "It's a very tricky, tough call, because people get free music on radio, too. But I think one of the arguments says that it doesn't hurt record sales and actually inspires sales, but the recording industry isn't doing all that well right now. This is not a big cause for me, and I'm not 100 percent against it, I'm 70 percent against it, but I think it is unfair for recording artists."
Jeremy himself has had past work turn up on the original Napster - a film file and a rap recording he had done. "I rapped on this record, I owned some of the publishing on it, I joined BMI, I made some money on it, and it was on an album, Booty Base, and there it was on Napster. Actually, I was flattered. Hey, I was good enough to be pirated! But I probably lost a couple of checks because of it."
Critics of P2P, like the music and film industries and some lawmakers, have often accused the P2P networks of either consciously allowing adult material to pass through their networks or turning a blind eye to those materials.
Earlier this month, adult video production company Titan Media accused KaZaA of refusing their request to help keep kids from being exposed to adult materials that pass through that network. "(W)hen given the specific knowledge and tools to do so," said Titan parent IO Group's vice president Keith Ruoff in a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee, "they refused to respond or take action."
Sharman Networks, KaZaA's parent, has testified on Capitol Hill that the P2P service "will take all other feasible steps to best assure that minors are not inadvertently exposed to adult content when using (KaZaA)."
