Sex has been employed in the advertising industry since it began.  At the beginning, wood carvings and illustrations of attractive women (often unclothed from the waist up) adorned posters, signs, and ads for saloons, tonics, and tobacco. In the modern era, a less stylised and often more direct implementation of the female form or the beefcake is being deployed in ads to grab our attention.

In 1994, Wonderbra created a neck turning; car-smashing ad entitled Hello Boys using the super model Eva Herzigová.   The famous poster was featured in an exhibition at the Victorian and Albert Museum in London and was voted in at number 10 in a”Poster of the Century” contest.

Voted Top 10 Best Billboard of all Time

In 2003, Easyjet created what it called a “non offensive, topical, humorous and irreverent” poster campaign that parodied the Wonderbra campaign of the 1990’s.  Using the strap line “Discover Weapons of Mass Distraction” the campaign paralleled the media hype around the discovery of WMDs in Iraq around the same time.  This ad received 186 complaints to the Advertising Standards Authority.

Humorous and relevent at time of publishing

Fast forward to September 2009… The Northern Irish market has at least 5 active second-hand-car sale syndication websites that I know of, including Autotrader.co.uk, usedcarsni.com, nicarfinder.co.uk, utvdrive.co.uk, ulstertrader.co.uk.  These sites take dealers’ and private individuals’ cars and promote them either exclusively on the web or in print.  They don’t get involved in the car sales transaction itself.  In other words they are a car marketing company.

Because the cost of entry to this market is relatively low, it has created massive competition for the advertising spend of the car showrooms and individuals wishing to sell their car.  This in turn forces the website to try and increase its notoriety and traffic in order to capture the advertiser’s budget.

The result being that in a desperate attempt to grab attention, one of the local car marketing sites, Ulster Trader, has taken the original Wonderbra campaign and removed all intelligence, fun and intrigue from the original poster.  The result being a sexist schoolboy shocker of an ad campaign.

Shockingly Sexist and Unintelligent Advertising

There is a very thin line between sexy and sexually offensive and this campaign has crossed way beyond that thin line.   There is no doubt that the campaign will win some short term discussion but the question Ulster Trader must ask is what harm this school boy gutter humor has caused to their brand and it’s long term prospect of survival.

I tried to call them to ask them about whom they felt this campaign connected with, and whom they felt it might alienate.  I wanted to know more about the agency behind the campaign and if the campaign is succeeding in building a trusted loyal following.   Alas there is no number on their website and the number listed in Yell.com is dead.

Most credible magazines and newspapers have strict protocols to make sure their editorial content is not infected by the influences of its’ advertisers.  This builds trust with the reader, ensures that the content is without prejudice and gives the publication integrity.  Advertising is kept at arms length from the editorial and that is the way it should be.

On the other hand the only truly successful global internet advertising platform is Google’s AdWords and AdSense.  What makes these ads different to newspaper advertising is that it flips the rule that advertising and editorial content should be kept apart.  Instead of making sure the ad doesn’t sit close to the editorial, it places the ad right along side it. In many cases the reader not only trusts the editorial but also considers the ad as additional content and helpful in the quest for more knowledge.

Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation announced that it is going to start charging for some of its’ online newspaper content come autumn.  The reason being that it can’t make enough money from online advertising to allow the content to remain free for all.  Why has the approach of publishers failed to generate enough online advertising spend while the readers are migrating online?  The problem lies in infinite advertising space the web affords us.

The web is different.  We trust software to position ads and don’t feel cheated or believe that editorial integrity has been lost.  This was an unthinkable model 10 years ago, just like Murdoch’s paid-for-content model being proposed now.  The question is what happens to publishing if Murdoch’s plan fails?