Source: Pornhub via YouTube

PORNHUB HAS BEEN in the news a lot lately.

Earlier this month, the world’s biggest adult website launched its “Premium” service, described as “Netflix for porn”, and began running a series of online ads.

But one of them has provoked the anger of Italian cheese-makers, of all people.

The short ad – designed to promote a “new standard” in pornography, and sell €9.99/month subscriptions – features a couple shopping for food.

In it, the man says:

Why don’t we get this aged Parmiggiano Reggiano? They say it’s the Pornhub Premium of cheese.

Now, the international Parmigiano Reggiano Consortium, responsible for protecting the reputation of Italy’s most famous cheese, has responded angrily.

[The ad is] not only unpleasant and unacceptable but offensive to the makers of the cheese and their work.

The Parmigiano-Reggiano Consortium storehouse, in Bibbiano, Italy. Source: Associated Press

On Thursday, the industry group said it was considering legal action against Pornhub, which boasts 60 million visitors every day, for “using the cheese’s prestigious name” to promote its own “vulgar services.”

By European law, parmigiano-reggiano, or “Parmesan” is a strictly “protected designation of origin” (PDO), similar to champagne.

The Parmigiano Reggiano Consortium has asked for the advert to pulled entirely, but on Thursday Pornhub re-published it, this time cheekily adding bleeps to censor the cheese’s name.

(The video does not include any adult content, and is completely SFW).

Contains reporting by AFP.