‘Sex is back’: Why Brooklinen went from double entendre to ads that are ‘overt’

There’s a lot that goes on in the bedroom that’s not appropriate for your typical bedding advertisement. That’s probably why most ads in the category opt for imagery of clean lines, fluffed sheets, and perfectly tufted beds.

Brooklinen’s new ads, which reintroduce the company’s Luxe Sateen bedding product, are taking the opposite approach. The spots, which are running on social platforms and out-of-home in New York, feature models lounging in their underwear or appearing undressed under the sheets, sometimes embracing a partner.

It’s a continuation of the brand’s “Best in Bed” campaign, which debuted in the second quarter of 2025, and continues the double entendres that started with the tagline. Ad copy includes lines like, “Last longer in bed,” and “You deserve better in bed.” It’s not the first time the brand has taken a similar tack: In 2018, the company put ads on the subway advertising sheets for throuples.

Like it did in 2018, the home essentials brand saw that addressing sex was a white space in the category, and decided to go there once again, Laura Jacobs, CMO at Brooklinen, told us. Bedding ads, she told us, have largely featured either “showroom brands,” i.e. the oh-so-perfect bedding brands, or “sanctuary brands” that treat the bedroom as a retreat,so the company started to explore “a little bit more of a provocative voice” last year. It also struck up a collaboration with the sexual wellness company Maude on a product bundle.

“We started to see the traction,” Jacobs said. “It became this engine that fueled our voice, and then this year we built that out beyond our ads, actually, to our brand partnerships…It’s more than just language. This is what we believe. People should be playful and have fun with sex in the bedroom.”

With the new ads for the Luxe bedding product, which uses the tagline, “So $@!&ing Soft,” the brand—which is also getting a boost via reviews in Architectural Digest and promoted posts with influencers like Quenlin Blackwell—went beyond the double entendre, positioning the sheets as so comfortable that anyone using them doesn’t need pajamas.

“That’s a step further in some ways than some of those lines that are clever and get your attention,” Jacobs said “This is a little more overt.”

Permission to be playful: The shifting cultural conversation around sex—which has gone from something younger generations have expressed discomfort with seeing on TV and movies to something other audiences are seeking out in droves—has given the brand more permission to continue to push the boundaries of its advertising.

“There was all that talk of like, no one wants to see sex…and then, something like Heated Rivalry comes around, and it’s like, oh my God, it blew the doors off the world,” Jacobs said. “I think people do want to see [that, and they] relate to it and connect to it, and it’s so human. We’re seeing now that people, culture, entertainment [are] a little less fearful of it.”

It’s not just Heated Rivalry (which we’ve covered extensively when it intersects with advertising) that is shaping the changing cultural conversation around sex. Other brands like Hint Water, Calvin Klein, and even Huggies have been more direct about sex in advertising in recent months.

“Sex is back,” Caroline Seklir, head of strategy at independent agency Yard NYC, said. “Victoria’s Secret [and] the fact that they’re changing their [stock ticker] to VSXY…Wuthering Heights…Sabrina Carpenter…we’re living in a moment where people are really embracing sex again.”

That’s a change from the recent past when “we got an era where the conversation around sex felt very loaded,” Seklir said. “Everything was about consent, and all of that’s for the better, but I think now people are kind of like, ‘Great, now let’s embrace it.’”

For Brooklinen, embracing the shifting norms when it comes to suggestive advertising goes beyond the idea that sex sells.

“Even when we’re not going down the sort of suggestive or provocative route, we always try to be really authentic,” Jacobs said. “I feel like we are in a moment where people want to see humanity.”