French porn stars in retailer ads

Posted Aug 15th 2006 8:56AM by Chris Thilk
Filed under: Sexy, Online

First off, this is NOT SAFE FOR WORK. I'm not kidding. Seriously.

Secondly, this is the first time all week I've had the chance to use the phrase "French porn stars."

OK, now on to the actual ad. French clothing retailer Shai has enlisted a group of porn actors and actresses to star in a series of web-video ads for the company's Fall fashions. The ads feature video that you can mouse-over and find more information on the styles being showcased.

The thing is, you have to look past the naked people having sex to find the fashions. And those fashions are pretty much gone from the video in the first 15 seconds or so. And the sex they're having is very much porn sex. You can view the videos, which are separated by Man/Woman, Man/Man and Woman/Woman, here.

Let's be honest, this campaign isn't about selling clothes. It's about grabbing headlines and causing a controversy. The best ads don't get in the way of the products they're selling, and this one almost completely ignores the product. That makes the debate over whether these spots are "over the top" or not kind of moot since that's the whole friggin' point.

Reader Comments

(Page 1)

1. It seems as if they are taking the "selling sex" approach of Abercrombie and American Apparel to the next level. Turning it to "11", so to speak.

Posted at 12:31PM on Aug 15th 2006 by unimental

2. When I first saw the small image on this post. I thought it was one porn star + one mannequin which actually would make for a really intriguing ad in my mind. I'm not implying any sort of hot porn star on oversized doll action here, just think that a still of a real human being smooching a mannequin would be amusing. When I clicked over the the video (of course, I just had to) the open still shot where the camera rotates around the individuals also created the effect that these figures were surreal.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I would appreciate an ad that features a human making out with a plastic human. I would find this interesting because it can be so difficult to tell how "human" models really are in so many photos. I hope that makes a little bit of sense...

Posted at 11:24PM on Aug 28th 2006 by Super Weiss

3. Well, the ad campaign may be effective in getting attention of sex starved people in this country who are always looking for something new about sex. However, such ads can not have a long term appeal and customer retention. Fads come and go and are hardly remembered.

Posted at 3:24PM on Aug 21st 2006 by cams

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