Dean Jamieson, The Madd Fun Company, Hastings has a bouncy castle that turns heads. Bouncy Boners is often hired out for adult entertainment. Video Warren Buckland.
Dean Jamieson's giant inflatable phalluses have blown up on social media.
Jamieson, from Hastings, designed a phallic-themed bouncy castle for hire, but on seeing it fully inflated, became nervous about promoting it.
So it lay dormant in storage for long periods in the past two years, its owner far from cocky about the castle's marketability.
"It's been a hard one to promote," Jamieson said.
That was until Tuesday, when Jamieson, whose business The Madd Fun Company has suffered during the Covid-19 pandemic, mustered the courage to post it on social media.
Dean Jamieson and Chris Stokes of The Madd Fun Company are cock-a-hoop over the success of the adult bouncy castle Dean designed. Photo / Warren Buckland
By Thursday his Facebook post had 15,000 comments, more than 355,000 views and had been shared by 1800 people.
Jamieson said the castle had only been hired 13 times since its inception, but he had now been inundated by a flurry of bookings, and queries from people in Canada and Australia wanting to get their hands on it.
"We've had a few bookings from Christchurch which has had me wondering what's going on down there," Jamieson said with a laugh.
Jamieson said it was nice knowing the castle had brought a smile to people's faces with the 3.25m high phalluses, especially as Covid-19 had been hard on the business, and the wider events industry.
"There's been so many events cancelled. It's cost us thousands."
However, there is some payback in the positive feedback from happy users.
"Listening to their stories we get a good laugh. Often it's a surprise and you can imagine their faces."
One client had placed the bouncy castle on the front lawn of their Napier home.
"They reckon they might have had 100 cars stop throughout the day to take photos and a lot of other adults in the neighbourhood came over to have a turn."
At another party where some children unexpectedly turned up, the adults had to come up with a quick explanation.
"They were fairly young and just told them it was a mushroom castle."
It's not the first time a photo of one of their bouncy castles has gained widespread attention.
A marae whare-style bouncy castle also proved popular, reaching more than 50,000 people.
