Oh, stop whinging PriceMazda
Your own food is still crap, hence today's new campaign. Sexy vegetables to conquor dear ol'Blighty.
Stimulating sales
How sexy is a man brandishing a salad ingredient?
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Does sex sell a serious message?
By Susannah Cullinane
BBC News
A suggestive campaign encouraging Britons to be meat-free is being launched to promote National Vegetarian Week, which begins on Monday.
The Vegetarian Society campaign's poster "Can you keep it up for a week?" is the latest take on the idea that sex sells.
But does this technique work in getting a serious message across to young adults or is it more likely to cause offence?
The idea behind the Vegetarian Society's latest advertising campaign was to encourage vegetarians "to stay meat-free for the rest of their lives", according to the society's spokeswoman Kerry Bennett.
She said the sexual innuendo was aimed at over 18-year-olds.
It comes after risqué posters were launched last week by the charity ENCAMS to promote the Keep Britain Tidy campaign.
One poster shows a woman with his shirt and the top button of her jeans undone, holding a bottle, beside the words: "While you're down there...".
Next to the Keep Britain Tidy logo further down, and in smaller type is: "... can you put that in the bin for me?".
ENCAMS has produced double sided beer mats to convey its message
"We're aiming at 18 to 24-year-olds because research shows it's one of the worst age groups for littering, so we really wanted a campaign that was targeted at them, "ENCAMS spokeswoman Emma Brennan explained.
"We've put it up in the places that that age group is going to be in," she said.
"We've taken a cheeky sort of approach but obviously hope people will take on a message to use a bin at the same time."
But not all the feedback has been good.
Claire Beale, editor of advertising magazine Campaign, voted ENCAMS' campaign "turkey of the week".
She wrote: "...it's beyond belief that (ENCAMS has) chosen such a naff series of images and one of the worst strap lines ever."
Taste and decency
About 20-25% of the complaints the Advertising Standards Authority receives relate to standards of taste and decency, according to spokeswoman Donna Mitchell.
The ENCAMS campaign attracted only one complaint and that was directed at press coverage of the campaign rather than at an advertisement itself.
Sexy sells much better than sex, unless you're actually selling sex products
Hamish Pringle
IPA
"We always say you have to see the advertisement to complain about it," she said. "If an advertisement is well-targeted it shouldn't cause complaints.
"For example an advertisement in Loaded is likely to have a different audience reaction from running that advertisement in the Times."
But the Vegetarian Society and Keep Britain Tidy campaigns fall short of the mark in getting their messages across effectively, believes Hamish Pringle, director general of the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA).
He said: "I think the problem with the two campaigns is that they're obviously trying to use sex to sell, and I don't think it's working.
"Sexy sells much better than sex, unless you're actually selling sex products.
"For most brands the gratuitous use of sexual imagery is a turn-off and a sexy sell is much more engaging, as the IPA Effectiveness Awards have proven."
The annual awards measure the success of advertising campaigns in terms of sales and impact on target markets.
Mr Pringle cited the award winning Haagen Dazs campaign and the Wonderbra's Hello Boys advertisement as "good examples of when sexy sells".
Audience targeting
But, he continued, "in advertising terms blatant sex doesn't sell".
"If it's a bit gentle and a bit more engaging that probably works for a wider target audience.
"The Vegetarian Society campaign looks to me rather heavy-handed, bearing in mind it's very easy for advertising to cause offence and that that tends to backfire on advertisers."
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wink, wink, know what I mean eh?
