Image of doughnut-flavored personal lubricant was created as joke

This article is more than one year old.
Published on January 27, 2022 at 16:35
2 min read
By AFP USA

Social media posts share an image of glazed doughnut-flavored personal lubricant said to be sold in a US drug store under the K-Y brand. But the creator of the image says he originally posted it as a joke for National Doughnut Day, and health and hygiene conglomerate Reckitt says K-Y has not created such a product.

"Somewhere, somewhen, a marketing team approved this, and a product team decided to make it glazed doughnut flavored," says the text shared above an image of K-Y "hole glaze" personal lubricant pictured on a drug store shelf in a January 19, 2022 Facebook post.

Screenshot of a Facebook post taken on January 26, 2022

Variations of the post with the same image were shared on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Twitter.

Many users shared the image as a joke, but comments show some social media users were unsure if the product was real.

Screenshot of a comment on a Facebook post taken on January 26, 2022

An internet search for the keywords "K-Y" and "hole glaze" in Google leads to an article by fact-checking organization Snopes, which reported in 2021 that Brian Lambeth was the creator of the image of the flavored doughnut (also spelled donut) lubricant.

AFP contacted Lambeth via Facebook Messenger and he confirmed that he first posted the image on his Facebook page on June 3, 2021 as a joke for National Doughnut Day.

Reckitt, owner of K-Y, also says the lubricant is not real.

"Reckitt/Durex does NOT have a partnership with Krispy Kreme. The product featured in the image you shared is not real," a spokeswoman said by email.

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