Marcus Angelo Moreno
Marcus Angelo Moreno
Occupation: Public Relations Specialist
Location: Los Angeles, California, United States
The Sex in My Business: Formerly I worked for Burson Cohn & Wolfe, the agency of record for TENGA, which is a leading male masturbation aid company out of Japan. My role there was to craft messaging and narratives for the company, which also included media management, influencer relations, and PR strategy for their leading program: a global survey about masturbation, sex, and sexual health and wellness perspectives. Currently, I am looking to branch out and support sex-positive, sexual health, and wellness companies/nonprofits with media management and company narratives. In short, I help sex-positive people get their message out!
A Typical Day: As a media manager, my days are usually centered on pitching products and (at my previous job) providing data derived from their global survey to assist with story angles. I also coordinated interviews with talent, who were typically clinical sex experts. In all cases, the goal was to get my client’s messaging (coupled with the data from the survey) out there, with the intention of dismantling the stigma about male masturbation, specifically with sex toys.
The Best Part: I love bridging my anthropological studies with my public relations skill set. It’s the ideal marriage for an academic nerd such as myself! Taking large data points or company missions, turning that messaging into digestible pieces, and providing it to journalists to support their sex-positive stories is incredibly rewarding to me. Ultimately though, it’s the final product that draws me to my work. There is no better feeling than reading a media-story crafted with your support that works towards a bigger goal: the right to sexual-health education. Everyone has a right to learn about their sexual health, and so I am proud to be a part of making this happen!
The Worst Part: It rarely happens, but to me the worst part of this work is when writers cherry pick sex-positive data to support arguments challenging the right for people to learn about their sexual health.
How I Got Here: I was naturally curious about human sexuality as an undergrad, which eventually led to my master’s in sociocultural anthropology. I loved what I studied, but I didn’t know where it would take me as a career. During my graduate program, I interned at several PR agencies and eventually took a full-time position. It was only a few months in when a colleague asked who wants to take on a sex toy company. Proudly, I raised my hand.
What Society Thinks: It’s a mixed bag — most of it positive. Many of my progressive friends think my job is cool. They understand the work I do and are open to talking about sex toys and sex. Many of my family and friends back home in the Fresno area, however, tend to be more reserved and traditional. Yet in some ways I have found that everyone is the same: even if they don’t want to talk about sex themselves, they all want to hear what I have to say. Deep down, I believe that most people want to learn about sexual health.
When I’m Not at Work: I’m usually reading about or studying something related to sexuality and media.
For more about Marcus, follow him on Twitter.
Published Oct 17, 2019
Updated Nov 10, 2022
Published in Issue III: Language