It's Happening...Nudevertising Takes Off

Advertisements get a bit more nipply

By Peter Gilstrap
Published: Mar 21, 2008

To invoke a Biblical-cum-slaughterhouse analogy, sex is the Judas goat of advertising. Any ad agency worth its salt is well aware of the power that a pair of well-placed knockers, a perfectly shot keester or a delicately posed crotch can have in terms of grabbing eyeballs and guiding them to the product, and in for the kill. Now certain innovators are breathing nude life into the ways of selling all flesh.

Leave it to the Brits—uptight on the outside, twisted on the inside—to come up with something new in nudity. What appears to be merely a face is actually a mess of human bodies. Look closely at this ad created for a BBC show on genealogy called “Who Do You Think You Are?” and dig the sheer sardineness of it all.

While body painting is nothing new—invented by hippies so long ago—the folks pushing Ultra Thin Panty Liners want you to know when they say “ultra thin” they damn well mean it. For their launch in South Africa, the skills of some lucky artisan and the canvas of a handful of lovely naked ladies created, yes, nude women with painted-on clothes. The message? Even in the most sheer of outfits, no one will know it’s that magical time of menses. Unless you’re acting like an insufferable bitch.

If a collage of human bodies is not edgy enough for you, perhaps 32,000 naked Barbies will be more to your liking. That’s what artist Chris Jordan used to design a picture of a breast. The doll mosaic serves as a social commentary, representing the number of actual boob jobs that took place in the U.S. alone in 2006. Yes, it’s a protest; Jordan wants to highlight the artificial nature of our chesticle-obsessed society.

Peter Gilstrap is an L.A.-based writer who is living the dream, along with two dogs and cat.

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