According to the press release:  “EIZO medical imaging high precision displays for the examination and diagnosis of radiographs. Whereas craftsmen are showered with pin-up-calendars at the end of every year, this kind of present is less popular among medics. EIZO breaks this taboo. This pin-up calendar shows absolutely every detail.”

I think these ads are so Suggestive Selling™, it’s ridiculous! I mean the male doctors may be amused, but how about the females? Are there some image examples of strong, sexy males? Although, a well endowed man could convince me that I needed a EIZO imaging machine!  Oops, I’m a dirty girl…..

Well they do say sex sells, and whether it’s a medical imaging machine, or soap, it is a documented fact!  Some do it subliminally, and others are a little more blatant!  More power to ‘em!  You really can’t get any more bare bones than this…

“I can’t help looking at what’s hot™” …even if it’s an ad for toilet cleaner!  Sometimes the best ideas are about doing the opposite of what is expected.

“Ambi Pur have released a new range of liquid toilet cleaner gels that combine hospital grade disinfectant with Ambi Pur fragrance to produce a toilet cleaner that doesn’t smell like one. To highlight the difference of its product versus other toilet cleaners, Ambi Pur has partnered with new Sydney agency JayGrey to produce a creative campaign titled ‘Now that’s an Eau De Toilette’, likening the toilet gel to leading perfumes on the market. The campaign features a series of print ads and TVCs”

Do your self a favor and click on the link for either a chuckle or a tingle… I had both!

Well I just thought it was interesting that one of today’s most Dugg articles was about just that.  If you feel like an amusing break down of how “All fast food advertising is now replaced with porn” then click thru.

I’m going to focus on a recent Australian campaign for Nando’s (a Portuguese style chicken chain).  After living in the U.S for a long time I couldn’t help but chuckle when I saw the billboard emblazoned with PORTUGASM and wonder if that would fly Stateside.

Nando’s National Marketing Manager, Justin Monaghan said: “Portugasm is a celebration of the way you feel when you eat Nando’s. Nando’s is all about having an ‘uplifting experience’ and the springboard for this is the best tasting chicken in the world. While providing a great experience is serious business, at Nando’s we refuse to take life too seriously.  It has been rumored for centuries that PERi-PERi sauce is an aphrodisiac. Our extensive and exhaustive in-home consumer testing, which involved overnight trials and in depth interviews, have provided the empirical evidence to give us the confidence to pursue Portugasm,” he said.

If you have time, check out the Hi-larious viral site http://portugasm.com/

At the end of the day I guess you have to know your audience well to judge how far you can push the Suggestive Selling envelope.  In Nando’s case, they are quite aware of the Aussie’s very tolerant and broad sense of humor so they got it right.  Apparently, (according to the PR guy) they are “adopting the word into their everyday vernacular – in all sorts of cheeky ways.”

“In 1976 Australia had 54,000 more men than women aged in their thirties, but by 2006 the excess of young men had turned into a deficit of 9,000.”
(I can tell you first hand…it’s pretty rough out there folks.)

Well it seems our rival city Melbourne ( much like the San Fran / LA thing ) is planning to jump on the chance to stick it to us.  I have had unconfirmed reports that they are considering a tourism campaign based on the fact that their “man drought stats” are slightly better than ours.  Along the lines of “come have a girlie weekend in Melb – there’s better odds of a fling or snagging a hubby…” or something like that… probably not that at all- but you know what I’m saying.

Interesting that no-one is really jumping on the even more shocking stats of the devastating Female Drought in rural Australia and rural NZ.  Yep Our Kiwi Cousins have got just as many ( if not more ) lonely farmers looking for a “Missus”.  “Single men are concentrated in rural and remote communities whereas single women prefer the city and lifestyle towns in seachange and treechange communities.” says one study

Then you have the case of the resort in Tropical Queensland that has boosted business by becoming not only nudist, but a destination for swingers – “Hedonism” style.  That’s a pretty ballsy way of handling the downturn  (pun intended) but it’s working, they are booked out months in advance and the laid-back locals seem nonplussed and supportive adopting a “hey, whatever works” response to the “new kind” of tourists wandering their town.

Interesting that in these challenging times we are seeing so much more evidence falling in the “lower” Maslow categories of Physiological & Safety.  Its like people are getting quite primal with their coping mechanisms.

Magazines were feeling the pinch even before the recession so it seems aiming at the LCD (lowest common denominator) is their desperate attempt to shock and titillate readers into buying their publications.

Well that’s the whole point of Suggestive Selling™ and it seems when times are tough the evidence moves down the Maslow pyramid into Safety & Physiological. It’s like a retreat to more basic instinct when we are faced with fear.  Perhaps people’s motivations for purchasing these rags are similar to watching reality TV…witnessing such train wrecks makes us feel better about our lives.

I have three words for you… Lesbian…Killer…VAMPIRES!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That’s right , horror comedy, Lesbian Vampire Killers is soon to be released in Europe and is looking for a US distributor. So far we haven’t heard anybody promising this movie any Oscars, but we are sure that promises to deliver three things.. you guessed it … Lesbians, Killers and Vampires and probably a few laughs.

Looks like the torture porn era is finally over and the era of sexy horror camp has come again.  After all, who wants pay 10 bucks to watch some poor schmuck get tortured , when you can read the financial news online for free!

Unless you already hocked your laptop… oh well there’s always the library.

Anyway, look for lots of comedy, stories of hope, action, and mindless fun in general this spring. .Judging from the poster there are will be more than a few fine examples of uhhhh… Barely Legal for you to… study… so stop moping around and go do your homework!!!

Perfumes bottles have always taken some sort of sensual structure. And why wouldn’t they, for the very contents within are nothing short of our aspiration towards perfection and beauty. Our human desire to smell good, at its most primitive, is to ultimately make ourselves more desirable. Suggestive Selling™ captured this human truth, from the subtle to the more obvious, humans just can’t help looking at what’s hot.

“Europe’s leading Crystal Artist” Emeshel seems to agree with us a he launches a line of premium perfumes entitled Nubia and Rajul, whose bottles are designed to mimic male and female genitalia. Curiously, the bottles shape correlate with the sex it’s intended for –instead of the opposite.

No matter, for $100 dollars you too can “reach the coast from the desert at dawn leaving behind the vast sand dunes and the cool Arabian night…touched by the fragrance of the wet wind and the endless water”.

Now that’s some fairy tale sensuality.

So, why is it that whenever I find out about a new campaign launched by the organization PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, my interest is replaced by eye rolling and disappointment?

PETA’s newest campaign is targeted towards the cruelest of all industries, carriage rides, carriage rides!!! Carriage rides??? Really? RU Serious? Carriage Rides? Really? Is this the most pressing animal rights issue! If so, then YAY for animals!

So, what is their secret weapon to raise awareness of this daunting issue? Photos of a naked female celebrity posing on a horse.

PETA says:

In a sexy homage to Lady Godiva, Kristen Johnston recently bared all to become the latest star of PETA’s campaign against horse-drawn carriages in New York City. Posing nude on top of a prop horse, the Emmy Award winning actor appears beside the tagline “Don’t Get Taken for a Ride. Horse-Drawn Carriages Are Cruel” in PETA’s provocative new ad.

I wander what Mr. Ed would have to say about the use of images that border on bestiality and the all to boring sexual cliché of women and horses on the behalf of his brethren? Maybe horses should sue PETA for defamation of character and public humiliation.

Obviously, anti-flesh flesh-peddler PETA, has found a strategy that works, naked women and shock value will get people to look, no matter how tiresome it might get. Even though I think the topic couldn’t get much more irrelevant, especially when we consider the issues we are currently facing (to hell this recession, I don’t care that there is a drug war in Mexico or that the American auto industry is close to going under, WE HAVE TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT CARRIAGE RIDES RIGHT NOW!!!!) OK OK I digress … Anyway, I was saying that this is still a good example of Suggestive Selling because, well I looked…I am sorry I did…But I looked and when this image is plastered all over cabs in New York a lot more people will be looking.

Now if PETA would stop acting like our collective 45-year-old uncle who makes fart noises with his armpit the first time your girlfriend comes to your family’s house for dinner, we would all be a little better off.

For those heavier consumers wanting to hide their love handles, Levi’s brought us the tummy flattening jeans, aka Levi’s 512 Jeans. And now, for all those consumers aspiring to a tighter booty, it’s the Levi’s Ultimate Lift 544 Jeans. Designed with fabrics promising to lift, tighten and tone the shape of your rear, Levi’s just might help thinner girls give apple bottom jeans users a run for their money. Or maybe not, but having a brand tell us what our derrieres should look like in jeans by actually helping us get there? Now that’s a clear message saying “let us, help you, be better”. But this piece doesn’t just fall in the more obvious Buff Culture category; it’s a clear example of Suggestive Selling. Consumers look for great fitting jeans, and there can be no greater fitting jeans than those actually made to make you more attractive to the opposite sex on a design and physical level. And that’s about selling yourself, looking good, all the time, no matter your mood or marital status.