• by Drew Neisser , January 9, 2004

With all the hype surrounding the final romp for Carrie, Samantha, Miranda, and Charlotte around the Big Apple, let there be no doubt that sex is driving media consumption like never before. Wonder not where the young men have gone. They are online looking at porn (19 million per month admit it), taking occasional breaks to read soft-core Maxim, to battle PlayStation goddesses, or to spy Samantha disrobing on HBO. But it's not just young men. Sex and the City is but one of many racy programs that attract a strong female viewership.

And women's magazines have come a long way, baby. Not an issue goes by without some discussion of "improving your sex life" or "how to be a better lover" just below the intimate cover photo of an impossibly voluptuous model. So it is no wonder that marketers want to ride the sexual bandwagon. But given the dazzling disasters of 2003, this author has to ask: Are sexy marketers turning on more customers than they turn off?

Miller Lite set the tone early, famously throwing its "actresses" into wet cement and leaving us all to wrestle with the boundaries of good taste. Young men said they loved the ads. Women's groups protested, calling Miller's marketing team "Neanderthals." The ever-civilized Bob Garfield agreed, placing it #2 on his "10 Ads I Hated List" and calling it a "cynical and desperate act." More significantly, beer consumers voted with their pocketbooks, ignoring Miller Lite as they have for years in favor of funnier Bud Lite and the party animal, Coors Lite. Then something amazing happened. Miiller Lite dropped the babes, started promoting itself as a "low carb" alternative, and took off for the first time in 9 years. Wow, imagine that: product news sold more beer than mud-caked breasts. So are we to conclude from this that sex doesn't sell beer after all? Well, yes, sort of. What really happened is that the value proposition changed from "drink beer, get lucky" to "drink beer, don't gain weight, get lucky." And isn't this the reason light beers were introduced in the first place? That's just as obvious.

Then there's Abercrombie and Fitch. These purveyors of expensive, trendy fashions targeting 18-24 year-olds have featured nude males in their windows, orgiastic "magalog" pages, and thongs for preteens emblazoned with racy phrases like Eye Candy and Wink Wink. Their efforts to appeal to the libidos of America's youth also attracted the ire of America's adults (surely not the same ones watching Sex and the City). One organization called the Campaign for Corporate Responsibility spent a ton of money running full-page ads in national newspapers like the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, stating that Abercrombie and Fitch was "actively flooding today's youth market with an overdose of sex and self-gratification." Now here's the ironic twist. A&F's same-store sales have been on a steady decline for the last two years. So what's going on here? After years of success, why aren't kids flocking to A&F anymore? Has CCR's concerted effort for social and corporate responsibility actually had an impact - or has sex appeal lost its appeal? Well, neither, actually. A&F is in a trendy business and kids have moved on, some in search of better values (Urban Outfitters, Old Navy) and others, different values (Lucky Brand or Juicy Couture.) Clearly, sex appeal is not enough to overcome stale fashions and high prices.

Last but not least, we have the upcoming Lingerie Bowl, a pay-per-view halftime celebration of nearly naughty nightwear, a seemingly perfect way for Dodge to sell its trucks to men. But alas, before this dreamy dance got started, Dodge management buckled under protest and prematurely ejected itself from the event. What's up with that? Doesn't seem "Ram Tough" to me. And this from those tasteful folks who brought us TV spots with men at urinals talking about extra length. Doesn't anybody "stay the course" any more? Oh well, we'll never know for sure if that particular parade of the scantily clad would have sold more trucks or if those not-so-tough guys in Detroit dodged a bullet (rim shot, please!) In the search for a value proposition for trucks, one has got to believe that Dodge could find a more relevant motivator than lingerie (although a free pair of the Manolo Blahniks Carrie likes might do the trick).

So here's what we've learned in 2003. Sex sells media. And sex still sells products, especially ones that are relevant to the topic like lingerie and perfume. But sex doesn't automatically sell everything else. Sex is not a value proposition, or at least not one profound enough to sell under-weight beer, overpriced clothes, or heavyweight trucks. But worry not. Even with the lamentable departure of Sex and the City, we can count on Sex and the Ad City for many years to come.