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Friday, July 27, 2007

Sexy Indian Ads

Adjective: sexy (sexier, sexiest) seksee
1. Marked by or tending to arouse sexual desire of interest
"feeling sexy"; "sexy clothes"; "sexy poses"; "a sexy book"; "sexy jokes"
2. Exciting sexual desire

That's what the wonderful and handy dictionary - WordWeb - describes the word "sexy" as.

Since it is difficult to be suggestive (leave alone being explicit) without inviting the wrath of the right, left and the centre in India, the sexiness quotient in Indian advertising is different from more liberal societies.
The Ministry of Information & Broadcasting has prohibited the transmission or retransmission of the advertisements of 'Lux Cozy Underwear' and 'Amul Macho Underwear' on all broadcasting platforms with immediate effect.

Nevertheless, we have had a lot of campaigns with a lot of oomph. From the vintage to the ones from century present, I've attempted to collect some. More will follow.

Sexiness depends on the point of view (pun intended). What's sexy for one is obscene or tasteless or even loathsome for others. Here are some generalisations.

First the Amul Macho chaddi ad, which has got everyone, from the mithaiwallah to the mantri, so excited.

[Click on the images for a bigger (and better) view]

Print

Sanah Khan with her twaing expression.

TVC

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Any gyaan on the meaning or symbolism of the word twaing?


It was Liril - and the original Liril girl Karen Lunel - which added the much needed sizzle to the world of Indian advertising.


Towel wrapped sexiness from 1975. Bombay Dyeing.


The big bad controversy. A campaign for Tuffs shoes and the hot couple Milind Soman and Madhu Sapre in the buff (except for their Tuffs shoes) and a python coiled between them.



More Tuffs. More skin.


Now here's the python with Madhu Sapre. Wonder where Milind went? Maybe the python got jealous and hungry at the same time.


Well men say that they like the 'eyes' but actually they mean what their eyes see. And you know where. Dayal Opticals do help you see better.


"Nokia N93i with extra powerful zoom." Does it zoom any closer?


That anorexic female from the Numero Uno ad. (Damn! I can't recollect her name). More of her later.


Why does Levis call them Low Rise jeans? Shouldn't they be Low Fall?

Okay, now I got it. When they fall low, others rise. All the faces in the above two ads seem familiar. Can you name them all?


I don't like the look of the new Bisleri bottle. The previous one featured in their 'Play Safe' campaign looked much better. Well, it would've been even better if the bottle wasn't there. More from the campaign in later episodes.


Dark desires. Now I got her name. Lakshmi Menon in Swatch Bijoux ad.


More of swatchy, sultry and sweaty Lakshmi.

[To be continued. Keep a tab here for updates]

11 Comments:

MeghnaMuses said...

The anorexic model - Lakshmi Menon.

Anonymous said...

lux cozy is not all that offending. This govt had to ban something , so they did.

R said...

Oh man, nothing new. Fashion TV faced it and god knows what all are they going to ban. Losers. Only if they thought of things like safe water supply or proper sanitation or electricity instead of moral policing. Jerks.

Amrutha said...

Errr.
But I oppose Zoom channel.
Why cant they ban it instead of F?

Soumyadip said...

Solipsista What's so despicable about Zoom? I don't watch the channel, so I don't know.

Anonymous said...

the models in the levi's low rise ad campaign are:sheetal malhar,Jaese Randhawa(Jasmeet Kaur), Dipannita Sharma, Neha Dhupia, Nafisa Joseph, Viveka Babaji

Soumyadip said...

Aslesha: Thanks a lot. But sorry, no prizes here.

Anonymous said...

Hey grow up.... when this govt. will stop banning...
censor board members should broaden up their mind...
Censor's dictionary meaning is "to officially suppress or expurgate books, films, news, etc containing obscenity or threat to security..."
Why we relate censor board with exposed bodies always... ??
I think its really fine to have such adds in market...afterall nobody bans whisper or stayfree adds while kids at small age ask their parents abt it... Aren't these adds vulgar... ??
IF NOT THEN I DON'T THINK ALL THE ADDS DISCUSSED HERE ARE VULGAR AND SHOULD BE CENSORED !
No need to post such idiotic blogs...

Anonymous said...

Sometime back Hindustan Lever was in a soup for a controversial print ad for its soap brand 'LUX'. The copy lines in the ad said, “Now every girl can be a **x symbol”, “**x in the morning and night makes your skin glow”, “Once a girl has tried **x, she wants it everyday”…………...!!!!!!

Cool post...and what's with this sudden flurry of 'Adult' content??!!

Soumyadip said...

Anonymous: We relate the Censor Board to 'exposed bodies' because they don't want us to see them. Rating is good, censorship always isn't.

Shagun: A comment from you after a long time.

I think I heard about this ad, but couldn't find it. If you have that please send it my way so that I can put it up here.

Not exactly a sudden flurry, but yes it had become more frequent for a while. Basically because I love posting them.

Viagra Online said...

the announcement of the boy and girl embracing and naked is too sexy!