Sex in Advertising
Web log entries dealing with sex in advertising.
The British Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has been busy lately. It has ordered lingerie company Gossard to take down two advertising posters deemed offensive. The posters were part of an advertising campaign showing naked men and women surrounded by discarded bras and knickers, accompanied by slogans like "Bring him to his knees," "Moan, moan, moan" and "If he's late, you can always start without him." Earlier this fall, the ASA found the cover of the movie magazine Hot Dog offensive and restricted its use in advertising. The cover featured a photo of Cameron Diaz shoving her hand down her panties, accompanied by the tag line, "The Pleasure's All Mine!"
Yahoo | Hot Dog (Oct 2000)
More sexy advertisements causing trouble, this time posters for Opium perfume featuring a naked Sophie Dahl photographed by Stephen Meisel. The British Advertising Standards Authority has ordered Yves Saint Laurent to remove the posters, claiming that they have "clearly caused serious and widespread offence."
The Guardian
A series of H&M lingerie advertisements featuring Claudia Schiffer wearing only bra and panties is contributing to the breakdown of social order across the globe. In Frankfurt, 3000 posters have been stolen from display cases, even though H&M traditionally gives away the posters when the ad campaigns end. Meanwhile, city officials and upstanding citizens in Albany are upset over the appearance of the risque ads on city buses and local newspapers. One newspaper editor argues that the H&M ads differ very little from lingerie ads in Sears and K-Mart circulars which run in newspapers every week.
Yahoo News (Dec 2000)
Speaking of underwear ads, this page presents Bruce Weber's photographs for a Calvin Klein advertising insert in Vanity Fair. Judging from the URL, it would seem a college student simply scanned and posted all the images on his personal web space. Warning: this page contains two dozen full-size images and thus takes a loooooooong time to load completely.
British magazine The Face has been pulled from Singapore newsstands because the latest issue's cover violates the country's strict anti-pornography statutes. According to Yahoo, "The magazine was sealed in lurid pink plastic with "SEX" emblazoned across the front in huge capital letters. Inside, the cover featured a topless model wearing a black G-string." A minor scandal is brewing over how exactly the cover got past Singapore censors in the first place.
Yahoo UK (Nov 2000)
James Fallon reviews the controversies over increasingly sexy advertisements appearing in Great Britain over the last year.
Style.com
GraceNet, a San Francisco-based networking group for women in the high tech industry, has been
protesting suggestive technology ads
that use hot babes in sexual poses to sell things like databases or servers.
Their monthly DisGraceful Awards highlight the worst offenders.
GraceNet founder Sylvia Paull says, "Yes, [sex] is as old as the hills when it comes to selling products
and it worked when 95 per cent of the people working in the computer industry were men. But almost 50 per
cent of the computer industry is now made up of women, and women are the ones out there buying these products
and they are offended by these kinds of ads." One recent award went to a business directory website company
for a magazine ad which featured a blonde woman in black leather, a mask and a dog collar. (Anyone else
immediately think of Nigel Tufnel asking, "What's wrong with being sexy?"?) Another winner, which even I find
a bit offensive, was a computer games ad from Hong Kong based Lik Sang International, showing a photo of
a young model licking her lips and a caption reading: "We don't have young Japanese girls on sale right
now, but we do ship more than 300 products directly from Hongkong!"
Financial Review (Mar 2001)
MTV, the Discovery Channel and several Fox affiliates have all rejected a PETA public service ad featuring fornicating cat puppets. The ad promotes spaying and neutering of pets. Lisa de Moraes points out the absurdity and hypocrisy of these decisions considering the regular programming on these networks.
Washington Post (Mar 2001)
The British Advertising Standards Authority
asked Ryanair to discontinue an ad for their low-cost airfares which featured oral sex innuendos. The questionable tagline read, "Blow Me! These Fares are Hard to Swallow!" Responding to complaints about the ads, Ryanair agreed they were suggestive but denied they were offensive.
Sky.com (May 2001)
Someone committed editorial vandalism against two Captain Morgan's Rum billboards in Sheboygan, WI, last week. The billboard depicts a group of nubile twentysomethings cavorting on the beach, including one bikini-clad model in the foreground under the caption "Catch of the Day." The alterations required careful planning: "Someone carefully sewed together large white [terry cloth] beach towels, pulled a ladder up to the 15-foot-high catwalk and then used the ladder to reach the model's bosom, another 15 feet up, to staple on the crude robe." Guerrilla-prankster acts of billboard liberation have a long, noble history, often expressing feminist critiques of sexist ads, though the actual commentary here seems more prudish than political.
Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel | Billboard Liberation Front | Utne Reader | MetroActive | Idiosyntactix (Jun 2001)
Cultural conservatives and anti-porn feminists are calling for a boycott of Abercrombie & Fitch over the summer 2001 issue A&F Quarterly, which depicts groups of naked and near-naked young people frolicking on the beach. The head of Concerned Christians of America says, "The exploitation of sex and young people in A&F's catalog is not only atrocious but also a psychological molestation of their teen-age customers." The president of NOW's Chicago chapter criticizes the catalog for promoting "unrealistic body types" and displaying images that evoke group sex. An Abercrombie & Fitch spokesman responds, "You have to be true to your customers -- and their response is overwhelmingly positive. There's nothing in it you don't see on any public beach in Miami. It's the Norman Rockwell of 2001 -- wholesome images of kids having the time of their lives." Or as A&F's web site says, "We've let the pleasure principle be our guide and filled our pages with wet 'n' wild summer fun." The boycott's leader posts a thumbnailed gallery of totally hot, albeit clumsily censored, photos on her official web page.
MSNBC | Abercrombie & Fitch | Lt. Gov. Corinne Wood (June 2001)
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) hired the advertising firm Saatchi and Saatchi to create its new public service announcement. Designed to encourage spaying and neutering of pets, the PSA features animatronic cats having sex. Many TV networks and stations have refused to carry the PSA, but you can view it online here, albeit only in poor-quality RealVideo.
Fixcats.com (Jul 2001)
The British Advertising Standards Authority has ordered two companies to suspend offensive ads. One targeted ad for Cavendish eBooks showed a naked woman with a laptop covering her lower body, with the tagline "easy access." Elsewhere, plumbing supplies company KwikCyl has agreed to stop running a controversial ad for its hot water cylinders in Heating Ventilation and Plumbing magazine. The ad showed a woman dressed only in thigh-length stiletto boots and a PVC mini-skirt, bent over and resting her chest and elbows against one of the advertised cylinders, under the tagline, "If I don't come on time, you'll get me free. And that's a promise."
ITN (Jul 2001)
British television networks banned an Agent Provocateur lingerie advertisement featuring Australian singer Kylie Minogue. The ad shows Minogue wearing suspenders, a see-through bra and matching briefs while riding a mechanical bull. The Agent Provocateur website now has the racy Kylie ad online in Windows Media format.
Sydney Morning Herald | Agent Provocateur (Nov 2001)
The British advertising standards agency has asked the organizers of the Erotica 2001 adult expo to stop using a controversial ad. The posters and newspaper ads depict a naked man lying on a bed with his arms outstretched above the words "Lead me into temptation."
Guardian (Feb 2002)
The London Underground has decided not to accept posters for the French film Baise-Moi. Plastering the walls of Tube stations with the words "Baise-Moi" — French slang for "Fuck Me" — was deemed by the Tube's advertising watchdog as "likely to cause offence to French tourists."
The Observer (Mar 2002)
Cosmopolitan is launching a raunchy new advertising campaign. One ad, promoting the magazine's shopping coverage, has a giant image of a black fake-fur purse open to show a pink satin interior. The catchline reads: "SHOPPING (& SEX)". Two other ads follow along the same visually ambiguous lines, with one picturing a lipstick shot to look like a vibrator and another showing a bikini-clad woman with a stream of white liquid running down her stomach. These ads will start to appear in British magazines and billboards soon; it's not clear if Cosmo will use these ads in North America.
Guardian (Mar 2002)
