Lingerie League, lawmakers pile on replacement refs

Everyone from lawmakers to lingerie lovers are piling on the NFL for using replacement referees that critics say are blowing calls, letting games get out of hand and even putting players at risk.

As the lockout of the league’s regular zebra-striped refs passed Week 3, officials with the Lingerie Football League told FoxNews.com that some of the replacements the league is using were rejected for getting calls wrong in gridiron contests between scantily-clad women.

“Due to several on-field occurrences of incompetent officiating, we chose to part ways with a crew which apparently is now officiating in the NFL,” Lingerie League commissioner Mitch Mortaza said in a statement. “We have a lot of respect for our officials, but we felt the officiating was not in line with our expectations.”

Mortaza, a lifelong Washington Redskins fan, said the poor officiating is compromising the integrity of the league and if he were the NFL commissioner he’d hold a meeting with the owners to bring the union officials back into action.

“There are just too many instances where their incompetence has been on display.”

- Mitch Mortaza, Lingerie Football League commissioner

“There are just too many instances where their incompetence has been on display,” he said. “Someone’s going to get hurt.”

At the same time, several lawmakers were chiming in, notably Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and GOP vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan, who both hail from the home state of the Green Bay Packers, who lost Monday night on a disputed, last-second call.

“After catching a few hours of sleep, the #Packers game is still just as painful. #Returntherefs,” Walker tweeted early Tuesday.

Ryan, for his part, compared the refs to the Obama administration during a campaign stop in Cincinnati, Ohio.

“I half think these refs work part-time for the Obama administration in the Budget Office,” he said. “They see the national debt clock staring them in the face, they see a debt crisis and they just ignore and pretend it didn’t even happen. They are trying to pick the winners and losers and they don’t even do that very well.”

And a top state lawmaker in New Jersey has seen enough of the NFL’s replacement referees, and he’s looking to ban them from working football games in New Jersey, where the Jets and Giants play their home games. State Sen. Steve Sweeney said the inexperienced referees could get someone injured

“Whether the sport is football, soccer or baseball, when referees don’t know how to properly enforce the rules, there is a real chance for unnecessary and serious injury,” said Sweeney. “If the NFL insists on putting replacement officials on the field, putting players at risk, then the state shouldn’t be playing a part in that.”

NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said disputed calls happen no matter who referees the game and said the league’s owners and Commissioner Roger Goodell are working to end the lockout.

“We appreciate Senator Sweeney’s interest, but officiating controversies have always been a part of sports,” Aiello told FoxNews.com. “Our staff, including Commissioner Goodell, has been in negotiations with the referees union for the past week. We hope to reach agreement as soon as possible.”

Even President Obama couldn’t resist staying out of the pile up, tweeting, “NFL fans on both sides of the aisle hope the refs’ lockout is settled soon.”

The NFL employs 121 full-time referees, who reportedly make an average of $149,000 a year for their Sunday afternoon services. Most have other full-time jobs. The two main stumbling blocks in the labor dispute are retirement benefits and the NFL team owners’ desire to impose new accountability standards on the referees.

On the retirement issue, refs currently have a guaranteed pension that the owners would like to convert to a market-vulnerable 401(k) plan. The owners are seeking new accountability by gaining the ability to pull poorly-performing refs and replace them from what would be a new pool of backup referees. Although this would expand the number of referee jobs, the officials are against it.

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Sex in a Box: $400 Toy, Lingerie Subscription Service Launches

First there was Birchbox for beauty. Then came BarkBox for dogs. Now there’s Blush Box for the bedroom.

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The latest subscription-commerce startup is dedicated to the booming sex-toy industry. And no, its founder isn’t a former porn star or a massive “Fifty Shades of Grey” fan — it’s adman Kenny Tomlin, who started digital agency Rockfish in 2006 (which he sold to WPP last year).

Blush Box is a venture Mr. Tomlin is pursuing independently from those companies, though he did hire Rockfish to handle branding and other creative assets.

“I’ve always believed that I’m a better leader of [an agency] when I’m also a practitioner of what we preach,” said Mr. Tomlin. “If we’re good at building brands and companies for our clients, we should be able to do it for ourselves.”

Still, as far as pet projects go, it’s an unexpected one for the conservative Mr. Tomlin, who before entering advertising attended the seminary and earned a master’s degree in theology. The work is a departure for the agency, too, which has mostly worked with buttoned-up brands like Walmart, Cisco and recently, the Mitt Romney campaign.

But Mr. Tomlin says he’s been following subscription-commerce businesses closely and sees opportunity in the model.

Indeed, the space does seem headed for a climax. Established players like ShoeDazzle and Birchbox are growing — the beauty-oriented Birchbox recently bought Paris-based Joliebox to grow its global footprint — while offers exist in just about every vertical. There are specially-curated boxes for those interested in gourmet foods (Love With Food) to health and wellness (Klutchclub) and even one just for people with curly hair (CurlBox).

With that kind of saturation, it’s no surprise there’s already an entrant in the sex arena — a service called BoinkBox. But Claire Roberds, chief merchandiser at Blush Box, insists it will serve up classier, higher-end products due to the retailer’s relationships with luxury and specialty brands, such as Lelo, which carries silk blindfolds, whips and fancy dildos and plugs. Many of those items cost more than $150 a piece.

The first Blush Box will be unveiled in early October and will contain a mix of lingerie, vibrators and personal massagers, and intimate wipes.

The boxes are geared to women, and everything arrives in a discreet, unmarked packaging. Subscribers should expect each delivery to include between five and 10 items. Future contents will include more sex toys, scented lotions and shower gels, massage oils, candles and lip plumpers. “Anything that helps women feel sexy and sultry,” said Ms. Roberds.

Some vendors are providing samples for free to include in the first couple of boxes, but going forward Blush Box expects brands will pay to be included. A selection of specially curated themed boxes will be available, too, such as the “Blushing Bride” for wedding night, honeymoon or bachelorette parties, and a Valentine’s Day box that will be available early next year.

Blush Box isn’t cheap. It goes out once a quarter, and costs $99 for pay-as-you-go or a yearly subscription costs $400. That’s steeper than say, Birchbox, which is $110 for a 12-month subscription (though it’s mostly all small-sized samples). If you sign up for a full year of Blush Box, you can shave about fifty bucks off.

Whether people will pony up, remains to be seen, but so far the sex industry has been recession-proof. A Scientific American article last year noted that sex toys are a $500-million-a-year industry in North America, with the industry growing, thanks to Tupperware-style parties and more big-box retailers stocking the items. And that was before the “Fifty Shades of Grey” craze, which observers say is fueling more purchases.

Initial marketing for the service will include paid search and social-media outreach starts immediately, combined with PR efforts. Starting in November, a bigger paid-media push will tout themed-boxes and subscription packages as gifts in time for the holidays.

Cindy Gallop, another advertising-exec turned entrepreneur in the sex space with her venture called MakeLoveNotPorn.tv, is rooting for Blush Box. She welcomes all initiatives that are aimed at “getting sex more publicly talked about,” though she would prefer to do away with discreet wrappers on Blush Box to help break down the societal norms around people being embarrassed about sex or buying sex toys.

“If you are setting out to build a brand in this area, you have to set out to break the ridiculous social puritanism around this topic, because unless you do, you’ll always have trouble growing your brand and business.”

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