A controversial poster campaign uses sex to sell a classified newspaper, writes Swapna Prabhakaran
They appeared overnight: a series of posters on lamp-posts along major roads in Gauteng, inviting people to Get laid or Swop the wife. Some were advertisements for Huge Organs and other highly suggestive products. Cars slowed down and drivers stared.
The risqu copy, written by Jeremy Beitch and Paul Watson of Partnership Advertising Agency, is for Action Ads, a new classifieds-only paper in the Independent Newspapers stable. The paper was born into a market ruled by their competitors, Junk Mail. Beitch says: We used racy lines because its a pretty good way to get people to look at the posters. It says: You can get any service you want through Action Ads.
Action Ads product manager, Wayne Riley, says: A boardroom of people from different races and different sexes looked at the posters. One or two were definitely a no- no. They were offensive and those ones were removed.
The rest were passed and the blitzkrieg began. In a day-long campaign 6 000 posters went up all over Gauteng. Not many motorists missed the captivating 69 in the Shade jumping from every other lamp-post.
Riley says there has been just one complaint from the public. According to Beitch, people think theyre hilarious. The female colleagues in my office giggled at them, they found them really amusing, he says. Each poster is an elaborate pun using the different categories of classifieds in Action Ads. For example, Huge Organs was printed under the smaller font heading: Musical Equipment. The comment about the wife was to advertise the papers Swop section and the beaver trap can be found in the Hunting Goods section. Beitch says he doesnt think the adverts are offensive to anybody. Theyre not sexist, theyre sexy, he insists.
But the women at People Opposing Women Abuse (Powa) beg to differ. They say the humour in these adverts arises from a basic assumption that women are objects, who can be sold, swopped or ridiculed.
Most of the time, the joke is on women, says Sally Shackleton, the Powa information officer. If were going to change attitudes, we need to start with the way people see women. Advertisements like this contribute to an attitude that what women feel, or what they have to say is not important. It encourages people to think, Sexism is not serious, its a big joke.