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Triumph’s racy ad: Does nudity always sell?

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Triumph has been teasing the public with a stream of semi-nude ads on OOH mediums such as bus stops and on social media.On social media such as its Facebook page, it has been posting provocative photos of body parts as teasers. Its video on YouTube had 1492 views. The ads were launched in the last week of April.As for OOH ads, it showed an almost naked woman with key parts censored, also offering passes to its product showcase. A Triumph spokesperson said that the campaign is targeted at 25-34 year-old women, though the campaign was also aimed at giving the general public something to talk about. “Interestingly, we have been getting quite a bit of interest from men too,” she added.Strangely, the ad has received the green light from advertising watchdog Advertising Standards Authority of Singapore (ASAS). A spokesperson told Marketing it has yet to receive any complaints from the public and the ASAS Council is also of the view that the advertisement is not objectionable.In other similar cases, however, ASAS has been stern.Last year ASAS sent a reminder to media owners such as JCDecaux, MediaCorp and others after it received various complaints of lingerie and bikini ads near schools.In 2011 it also famously suspended Abercrombie & Fitch's ad of a man's torso tugging on his low-slung jeans.Will it sell bras?The Triumph spokesperson said that since the ad had only recently been launched, results were not available.Marketing spoke to several women in Triumph’s target group. 28 year-old Karen Teo said she did not find the ad lewd but felt the brand had become too mature. “I think brands like La Senza have better marketing campaigns. It’s (La Senza) more fun, attention grabbing and it gets its target customers.”25 year-old Jaishree Medepalli said that the ad was a little confusing. “Are they selling make up to make it invisible or is it just the bra? The ad may lead people to think that make up is being sold with the bra,” she said.26 year-old Yvette Wong said the ad had a mildly "soft-porn feel" to it, but had little effect in stirring her curiosity about the product. "Once I see the Triumph logo, I already know they are selling bras; and judging from the print ad, it's probably a nude bra. If they are trying to appeal to women, they've got it all wrong," she added.Meanwhile, senior creatives have had mixed reactions.“Will the public get it? Of course they will. No need to dumb everything down. Happy to see this client thought enough of their product to take a little risk in the advertising,” said Robert Gaxiola, creative partner, ManghamGaxiola.Rayner Lim, creative partner for the agency Contagious also found the ad confusing, saying: "What a titillating teaser that made my brother and I stand up, head to the kitchen and pour ourselves a glass of ice water. But what does it mean?"

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