buttered up

The guy behind Boy Butter is a hunky Israeli-born swimmer with a history degree

If you’ve spent any time in gay-friendly sex spaces, chances are you’ve seen Boy Butter, the cheeky personal lubricant with packaging that would look commonplace in a grocery store dairy aisle.

Turns out, the brand was started by Eyal Feldman, a now-44-year-old Israeli-born swimmer who has a history degree and competed in the Gay Games.

Before selling the lube, Feldman worked full-time at the gay clothing company Nasty Pig. He said he recognized (ahem) a “hole in the market” because there weren’t organic personal lubricants that lasted as long as silicone but washed off with water alone. Sensing this, he found a manufacturer and launched Boy Butter using a $100,000 loan from his parents.

He used to market his products on gay social media spaces, RuPaul’s DragCon and national leather events, using muscular thirst influencers. But he recently told Outsports that he’s planning on running future commercials on ESPN, NFL Network and FOX Sports, something that could curdle the milk of the latter network’s conservative viewers.

The aforementioned publication noted that, five years ago, the telecommunications company Comcast refused to air a Boy Butter ad in Chicago because it apparently thought watching a sexy ginger man churning butter was “too risqué.”

The ad, which featured thirst model Seth Fornea, had already run on VH1 in NYC, Los Angeles, San Diego and nationwide on Canada’s OutTV.

Comcast reversed its decision five days later, but before then Feldman began a media blitz highlighting his corporation’s censorship of a gay ad.

These days, he ran a Boy Butter during Thursday Night Football on an NFL Network replay. His latest ad, a black-and-white ad of two shirtless men running on the beach (which honestly looks more like an arty cologne commercial) will soon air on ESPN.

It may seem odd for gay lubricant ad to air during a mainstream sporting event, but Feldman see his product like any other personal care product, like toothpaste or shampoo, and says that everyone can use it, regardless of their gender or sexual orientation.

“Sex is the second-most important drive after feeding yourself,” he told Outsports. “It’s an important part of our lives.”

Queerty also featured Feldman in 2013 after he completed a swim across the Dead Sea, the world’s saltiest body of water.

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