• by July 29, 2005

By Jane Lacher

Last month, when media editors asked me to sound off on the influence of pornography on the mainstream media business, i went all out. My Vox Pop quote referenced belly shirts and blow jobs. The thing is, I'm still mulling over the question: Why is porn such a touchy subject? No pun intended.

I conducted an informal poll among my colleagues, friends, and family and the one thing that came through loud and clear is that pornography really gets people excited. Again, no pun intended.

Everyone I spoke to or e-mailed with my porn query responded immediately and vociferously  not the typical response to my opinion-seeking pleas. My focus group of "near and dear" made it clear that porn is not just about watching "adult" movies on the tv in your hotel room, but that there are elements of porn in most mainstream media.

Like a good smorgasbord, porn-like media has the breadth and depth to provide a plethora of choices with a little something titillating and addictive for everyone. My personal favorite is "food porn." The Encyclopedia of Ethics defines pornography as "the sexually explicit depiction of persons, in words or images, created with the primary, proximate aim, and reasonable hope, of eliciting significant sexual arousal on the part of the consumer of such materials."

By the same token, my working definition for "food porn" would run something like "the explicit depiction of food, in words or images, created with the primary, proximate aim, and reasonable hope, of eliciting significant arousal on the part of the consumer of such materials." Parallel definitions of porn can be applied to many addictive pursuits, like shoe porn (think Manolo Blahnik).

These forms of porn are obviously in the eye of the beholder and for the most part, relatively quiet and tame, but there are some exceptions. Think about all those sensually suggestive cooking shows that make preparing and eating food a sinful, voyeuristic experience that not even the Playboy Channel can match. And on that note, what about home porn, broadcast-style? "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" regular Ty Pennington can't keep his pecs in his shirt through a single renovation. Tool time indeed.

Porn, porn everywhere and not a plain paper covering in sight. Most recently, Carl's Jr. showed us marketers how to use a good morality lashing to our advantage. Instead of apologizing for their burger-as-sex-toy ad, with "reluctant" Internet porn star Paris Hilton, they beefed up (yet again, no pun intended) their Web site to include special clips featuring the too-hot-for-tv spot. No wonder Paris is smiling!

Jane Lacher is vice president, director of research and consumer context planning, at MediaVest, New York. (jane.lacher@mediavestww.com)