The role of humour in sperm donor recruitment is almost as controversial as the subject matter.
Unlike either oocyte or embryo donation, sperm donation presents a massive PR problem - masturbation. At least since Onan came to a sticky end, masturbation (aka 'self-abuse') has both suffered censure and has provided a fertile source for low-grade humour.
Various tactics have been employed to attract men to donate sperm. In jurisdictions where there are no externally-imposed restrictions on the use of enticements, financial inducement seems to work reasonably well and major US sperm banks adopt what may best be described as a casual approach to recruitment.
The website of Xytex entices potential donors with the less than eye-catching slogan 'become a sperm donor with Xytex'. California Cryobank is a little more imaginative with 'Give the gift of family'.
The website of Cryos International, which claims to be 'the world's largest international network of sperm banks, offering our services to clinics and private customers in more than 60 countries', is the epitome of low-key, providing no obvious indication that it is seeking to recruit donors at all.
More brash recruitment efforts have come from elsewhere. In 2005, the Albury Reproductive Medicine clinic in New South Wales, Australia achieved international celebrity (or notoriety) following its advertisement for potential donors in a University of Calgary student magazine to whom it was offering a two-week, all-expenses paid trip down-under.
Recent sperm donor recruitment campaigns in the UK have tackled the masturbation 'problem' head on - most notably the National Gamete Donation Trust's (NGDT) 'Give a Toss' campaign (for non-UK readers of this commentary the campaign title cleverly - if not tastefully - played on the twin British slang meanings of 'toss'. First, as a euphemism for 'masturbation' - as in 'have a toss' or to 'toss off' - second, to refer to 'caring', as in the negative rendition of the term 'couldn't give a toss', meaning 'do not care').
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