Advertising +92 : Sex in TVCs

Has there been a case where women are shown having orgasm in Pakistani advertising? Got you thinking, right? Well, the answer is yes. Now, now calm down kiddies , the advert was taken off-air after few weeks, but it got us poor marketers rambling about whether to use sex in Pakistani media or not? One thing I know about our society, we are anything but sterile! We a nation of 170.6 million ( Ministry of Economic Affairs and Statistics. Retrieved 17 January 2010)  And according to the stats, we have only thing at our homes, SEX! States don’t lie, baby. But NO we cannot talk about sex on national television…okay this is just to offend all those who think, talking about sex is wrong, sex, sex, sex, sex, sex, sex, sex….sorry, I just got carried away. Anyway, poor Neha Ahmed became the victim of all Moulnas in Pakistan after modeling in Wall’s magnum TVC, Let me jog you memory, the advert starts with a woman closing all the windows and door. Takes her dupatta off and finally approaches refrigerator to have a Magnum bar. Followed by lights going off and stilettos flown in the air, the woman apparently has an orgasm and touches her body spasmodically whilst having bites of the bar. The advert ends with the woman licking her finger after finishing the bar, tada! A perfect recipe to set Moulna brigade on fire. So what was the big idea behind it? It is suggested that most women prefer to have chocolate than sex (news.sky.com) Chocolate has been known as a mood enhancer because it helps releases endorphins.  The advert is targeted at specific gender segmentation, women to be precise.  The woman in the advert goes through different sensory experiences from taste, smell to touch. This chocolate bar has been positioned keeping mind its target market. If one keeps the context and the scientific research in mind, the advertising agency seems to be spot on. However, this ad was lambasted by viewers and critics alike, probably because they missed out on the social, cultural values and psychographics. In order for an advert to be successful it has to be aligned with the macroenvironment of that country. Pakistani culture as for now cannot stand a woman having orgasm on national TV, because we like the real thing, a practical nation eh? Commercial 

Transit Media

Pakistani advertiser are lambasted frrquently because of their unorignality and lack of creativity. Jazz's Sach Jazba World Cup 2011 campiagn got pristine marketers scraming out loud about the blatant plagiarism. Apparently, the logo was an inane copy-paste of Zogra's logo, obviously, the ad agency did not reralize that people are smart enought to figure these things out eventually. The plagiarism went to the extent that they actually used the same tutorial used by Zogra. 

All said and done, I am an optimist, or would I like to thing so. There has been significant amount of change in how companies advertise; new and innovative venues have been explored ableit far and few between. Recently, while driving I came across rather a new media of advertising in Pakistan, transit media. 

I found it so interesting that it made me stop the car and shoot, but for some of us, attitde towards Pakistani marketers is never going to change no matter how creative they get, after all it is made-in-Pakista, right?