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Reply to "Puritan Watch"

***PURITAN ALERT***


Risqué may be too risky for ads


By Bruce Horovitz, USA TODAY
The aftershock to Janet Jackson's breast-baring Super Bowl stunt has finally hit the nation's cultural core: Madison Avenue. Some major marketers "” under pressure "” are abstaining from sex as a sales tool.
Anheuser-Busch said Thursday that it plans to drop risqué ads. The beer giant joins a growing list of edgy marketers "” including Victoria's Secret and Abercrombie & Fitch "” that have recently taken very public steps away from over-the-top sexuality.

An aging generation of baby boomers is increasingly queasy about the often-grungy sexual imagery that has become almost second nature to kids.

"There's a sense that nobody's minding the store," says Allison Cohen, president of PeopleTalk, an ad consultancy. "There's a real reining-in going on."

Not that sexuality is disappearing from advertising. Las Vegas revived its sultry image campaign around the steamy ad slogan, "What happens here, stays here." And in a new Levitra ad that began airing Thursday, an attractive brunette minces no words when she says the drug for erectile dysfunction increases her partner's desire to "do this more often."

Sexuality is central to companies trying to sell fashion, fragrance or alcohol, says Donny Deutsch, CEO of the Deutsch ad agency. But the Jackson incident was a "seminal moment" in pop culture, he says. "It forced a lot of this stuff to the surface."

Every few decades, Deutsch says, the nation goes through a "reflective stage." With the White House's conservative agenda, he says, we're at that stage.

Who's toning down:

"¢ Anheuser-Busch. August Busch IV, president of Anheuser-Busch, speaking Thursday in Florida, cited a changing decency environment that will only get tighter as the election approaches.

"People are drawing boundaries, and we have to figure them out," he said to executives at the American Association of Advertising Agencies management conference. "I think it's important for all of us in the advertising community to understand what the public mood is."

Busch said several popular ads the beermaker aired during the Super Bowl, including one featuring a dog biting a man in the crotch, would not air again.

"¢ Victoria's Secret. Last week, Victoria's Secret said it would drop its TV fashion show of lingerie "” in part because of public response to Jackson. Ed Razek, chief creative officer for the chain, said it wanted to focus on new ways to promote the brand. But, he added, "We had to make the decision ... when the heat was on the television networks."

"¢ Abercrombie & Fitch. In December, Abercrombie & Fitch said it would kill its quarterly catalog "” long criticized for young models in sexually suggestive poses. Executives declined to comment Thursday. At the time, the company said it was time for "new thinking."
Last edited by Michael Madison
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