Reading Response 1

In James B. Twitchell's essay, How To Advertise A Dangerous Product, he takes a look at the revolution of woman's hair coloring. At first, it was such a taboo because only prostitutes changed their hair color to look younger and more fertile. Marketing became an issue, because of the problems that happened. At first, people didn't want the product, then after a few giant leaps forward in ingenuity, the product was something accessible to every woman.

The question was asked if the phrase "you can be very naughty if you are first percieved as being nice" still has any relevance today. The answer is clearly, yes you can. In today's advertising campaigns, there are some very strong sexual overtones in what they are trying to promote. The first that comes to mind is the Axe and Tag bodyspray commercials, which depict some average guy spraying the stuff on him and becoming flocked by attractive females. We all know that doesn't happen in real life, but they can portray that because it appeals to the male mind. The naughty is evident, but the nice comes from the girls just trying to smell him, as opposed to the overtone of the more sexual nature.

Another example we can use is those Viagra or Cialis commercials. The commercials, especially Cialis puts out is very ambiguous, with their trademark two people laying in side by side bath tubs. But Cialis is for erectile dysfunction, of course something of the naughty nature again. They don't make it apparent, but this is one of the biggest examples I can see of selling sex.

The last example I can clearly think of is an old trojan commercial. It showed through a window a farmer's crops, with a female voice in the backround gasping, then saying "oh my, what a big cucumber you have." All those but the little children were able to pick up on the euphanism, but again, clearly selling sex by putting vegetables on the screen and playing off of slang terms, used in their original, intended context.

Our answer, is clearly yes. You can be very naughty while first coming off as "nice". In our society, sex sells, no doubts about it. Some companies mask it a little better than others, but if you look closely enough, the naughty side can be found in a lot of things, things you may not even expect it from either.