Indian Advertising and Sex.
Does Sex sell?
This used to be one very common GD topic, and a subject marketers and Ad-men love to discuss at the drop of a hat. [more]
Gives much fodder for controversy among the moral police brigades as well.
To the right is the imfamous Ad from Tuffs that started it all. It created a small flutter from the Moral Brigands. [image from here.]
Wait! I am not here to debate on whether sex sells or otherwise.
My question," if the ads mentioned were SEX afterall"?
To me, showing a little skin is not sex, just a little improvement to the torn Cobweb scenes of Ganga Jamuna Saraswati or two flowers banging each other.
Some creative head of a famous ad company once gave a guest lecture( no, he was not a guest faculty from Wharton, just an Admen who was kind enough to give us some insights on Indian Advertising). He showed us some very beautiful ad campaigns from around the world from a video. I rememeber what he told about the Indian Ad making, "We are just not bold enough". Then, he proceeded to show us a series of bold commercials.
I particularly liked the ad about the fruit flavored condom.
It showed a very polished lady (in a restaurant or waiting for something I don't remember), and a fly was hovering around her mouth. It didn't suggest anything till the product was shown. A fruit flavoured condom. It was funny as hell, but the commercial didn't end there. The Coup de grace was the ending when it showed another scene and the fly was buzzing around a guy's mouth. Now that was bold. No skin, no sex. Plain creativity. Have a Dekko here.
I like the Ikea ad campaigns as well. Very clear Messages. Tidy up, or see what your kid nis playing with... trrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
To be bold, and to convey a sexual tone, one don't have to be so
Have a look at this Puma Ad... A little gross but.... BANG ON ..literally
posted at 5:19 PM
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24 Comments:
It’s how we define the term “sex sells” – this doesn’t exactly mean sex as in the act but sex appeal etc. I think advertising has come a long way now and as with most things we use sex appeal to promote goods and services. I’m not too familiar with the Indian advertising industry but from what I see in the UK there is a great deal of creativity and aesthetically pleasing adverts around that convey their message without coming across vulgar.
yeah, agree with sangita!! :D
After reading the post i remembered one good ad, the "chhata" one, for condoms and safe sex! That was an awesmoe ad! wasnt it?
Bold yeah, freakin hilarious too!
Btw thanks for coming via gypsynan and stopping by at my blog. :-)
hey thats a nice post. :) seriously.
Sex does sell and its no harm in showing it and that too certainly in a country with the highest population (you don't increase the population without sex you see...lol). After all Indians showed the world how to do it the right way through Kamasutra. I don't understand the unnecessary hoopla surrounding the same.
I like the fly ad, really cool.
Our country can be said is under-going a 'SEX BOOM' sort off thing...where anything with little skin show..mostly does well, be it in movies or ads.
As you rightly said, even for a 'sex-related' product...doesnot mean we have to show skin or a sex act..to make the message clear...all we need is just 'Creativity'.
The new Indian AIDS campainge ads are quite good too.
But we still remember the pyar kiya iqurar kiya and associate it with the aathaane ka teen Nirod. Which other Indian rubber ad has such a recall value. Though we (the so called 'upwardly mobile' types) still prefer the Durexes, KSs, Kohinoor etc.
i love ads that imply msgs - rather than blantly telling it out - wheres the creativity in that. the fly ad was really simple and well done.
in terms of boldness india is way ahead of msia
Yes, we need to be more bold. But in a country like India bold will soon translate to gross. Who will draw the line between suggestive and overtly graphic? For every ad maker who will make good ads there will ten who will make trash. Just look at the first remix videos and the ones on air now!
p.s. the egg curry turned out lovely :))
nice post.
teally like ur idea
I ve seen a link to your site in http://simpli-city.blogspot.com/ = "Simple, non-fussy cooking. Nice."
It's for nothing ads use sex appeal, for the simple reason that the ad gets noticed. But what sets apart a good ad (even with sex appeal) and a bad one is how subtly or blatantly it has been used.
Oh! I like the fruit condom ad!
@ Bonatellis: I came across the puma ad while surfing and then it led me to a chain of thoughts. thnx that you liked it..
@ Sangeeta: exactly what I wanted to say, and yeah UK market is much matured compared to ours. it is not lack of creativity but the acceptance of bold ads. censor board won't mind a sometimes gross ad like bisleri play safe campaign, but do you think they will accept a gay who had just gone down on some fruity flavor..
@ Ektz: thats as far as we could go.. nice new tenmplate... you are still into dark themes though huh..
@Sines: hey thx for dropping by too.. congrats... and glad you liked it.. i am learning to write funny lol.
@ Gemini: Seriously!! Thx seriously..
@ tony2Ricky: Oh yeah my fav. ad too, and there is an Ikea ad. will find the link and send u if i get it... and yes, i don't know why such hoopla .. But you know what the same hoopla is created by those who haven't much opportunity and are damn jealous that Kids of this generation are getting all that was denied them. GENERATION gap.... I say, Leave us Alone
@ Sakshi: And yeah we are growing, we have come a long way since pyaar huaa... I like the Buladi campaign. there should be AIDS awareness campaign. I dread to think that so many people are carrying HIV and Most of them did it from ignorance. Like ur post on aids awareness day. manipur is famous for HIV .. we atre in the news for all the wrong reasons eh...
@ Soumyadip: Yeah...That song, just the right association.. Jingles, sung at the right tone, or admistered well can associate a great recall value to some brands.
@ Visithra: DOn't know much about msia, but maybe its mostly to do with religion.. i don't know. And yeah we are getting bolder but nowhere near the real world
@ Silverine.. Rigtly put. Some people are just downright gross, but then maybe there are audiences who love it.
And kewl about the eggs.. remain my fav. try the fish
@ Dwaipayan: Thx. glad that you liked the idea.
@ Hul; it was last sunday's i beleive. What is simpli-city really. like their template though. very simple.
@ Pradeep: It shouldn't be blatant as for people to want to go for the remote as soon as the ad comes. there was a resaerch report that people who went shoopping with family won't buy bisleri....
@ Sanity starved: Ahh glad you liked it. Seems top be everybody's fav. have u tried out my fish curry??
LOL, U remembered that Ganga Jamuna Saraswati scene - the most corny one ever!
Sex needs a lot of creativity to be displayed properly. And blatant portrayal is not the only means. I think Nirodh ads, in that era and time, served their purpose well.
Here it goes, you mention word "SEX" in your blog, you got 20 comments, I am 21st.That's a good sign. It shows that people still love sex more than blowing themselves for some holy crap in this country.
Hey Anthony, I can't say whether sex sells or not, but the idea is surely grossly misused. As long as it is the commercial of a fruit flavoured condom, it is okay. But how do you explain a semi nude girl dancing in a paanch rupaye ka pen commercial?
Will showing the girls hot bod, help sell the pen? This sure makes me think!
Great post, BTW
u guessed right it has religious restrictions - applies to movies as well - cencorship is so huge here
Awesomely decadent picture and bless your soul for remembering GJS...Ek ek hoye jaaye phi ghar chale jana.
err... the condom ads you liked... i didn't think they were too hot.
I mean, who does blowjobs with condom's on?
right?
4wd | fourwheelhigh.blogspot | 12.11.05 - 4:12 pm | #
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HAHAHA, good thought.. maybe the flavor remained even after the condom was removed
tony | Homepage | 12.11.05 - 11:11 pm | #
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