Ads - Part 86

Deutsche Olympische SportBund

The Deutsche Olympische SportBund (German Olympic Sports Confederation) is a confederation of sports clubs in Germany, representing 90,000 sports clubs with 27 million members.

In 2007, they ran an ad campaign promoting fitness.  Above is one of the ads.  The ad says "Wer sich nicht bewegt, wird dick", which means "Those who don't move will become ..." 

"Dick" doesn't mean dick in German.  It means thick.  Well that wouldn't be so bad, to become thick.

Except in this context, "dick" means a thick body, i.e. fat.  So the ad means "Those who don't move will get fat."

And of course, here's the original statue of David by Michelangelo, before the statue got fat.

Ads - Part 85

 Suistudio

Suistudio is a Dutch brand of custom-tailored clothing for women.  They had come under fire for a marketing campaign featuring nearly-nude women, so in 2017 they turned things around with a series of ads featuring nude men, called their "Not Dressing Men" campaign.

They showed male rear nudity in the ads, but concealed frontal nudity.

Note that the female model is wearing a different outfit in each photo, because that's what they're selling, though our eyes may be elsewhere.

A different female model with, I think, the same male model.

She seems to be wearing the same outfit in this photo and the previous one.

Now she is wearing a white blouse and different pants.  He continues to be free.

Ads - Part 84

 Praia do Pinho Beach Publicity

Recently we have run some posts about Praia do Pinho, a nude beach in Brazil.  The video above is apparently an ad or publicity piece for the beach (I don't speak Portuguese so I don't know what they're saying).  And although frontal nudity is censored early in the video, rear nudity isn't, including when the couple turns and walks into the water.

And, more than that, you can see what's between his legs as he walks away, as is clear in this gif that I made from the video.  Well, it's a nude beach, so it shouldn't be a big deal, but I think this video was made for public viewing, possibly on TV.

Ads - Part 83

Directory Assistance, Belgium

Above, we see some people waiting for a bus in Brussels, Belgium in 2008.  Behind them is a huge poster advertising telephone directory assistance.  It says (in French) "Another fan of 13 13".  That's the number to call in Belgium for directory assistance in French.

Of course, the ad grabs your attention with a guy who has 13 13 painted on his butt showing himself to a crowd of people in the background.

Another version of the ad, above, says "Another fan of 12 12" in Dutch.  That's the number to call for directory assistance in Dutch, because both French and Dutch are spoken in Belgium.  And if you call 14 14, you get directory assistance in English.  They cover all the bases in Belgium.

Now he has 12 12 painted on his butt.  What gives?

It turns out he had nothing painted on his butt.  The guy was a streaker who ran onto the field at the Wimbledon tennis tournament in London, England on July 4, 2006, above.  European Directory Assistance, a Belgian company, used a photo of him with the crowd in the background, added their phone numbers on his butt, and used it in their ads.

He didn't just stand there at Wimbledon.  He ran around and did a cartwheel for the crowd.  The crowd was delighted.

And here's a frontal view of him.  His name is Sander Lantinga, and he was a 29-year-old Dutch disc jockey who did the streak as a challenge for the Dutch TV program Try Before You Die.

Then Wimbledon security came onto the field, took him away, and had him arrested.  The police released him after cautioning him about causing a minor public disorder.

Here's how it was shown on BNN, the Dutch TV network that runs the show Try Before You Die.  Unfortunately, they censored his nudity, but luckily for us, other photographers had captured the scene.

Ads - Part 82

Alfa Romeo

Alfa Romeo has been known to feature nude men in its ads.  Above, a French ad from 2004 says "A car has never been so well thought through," with a model imitating the pose of Rodin's statue The Thinker.

In 2011, Alfa Romeo ran a series of ads in England for its car called the MiTo Sprint, featuring four nude British Olympic athletes who were sprinters, two men and two women.  Of course we're looking at the men.  Above, Iwan Thomas, who won the world championship in the 400 meters in 1997.

This is Harry Aikines-Aryeetey, who later won gold in the 100 meter relay in the European Championships and in the Commonwealth Games.

And if you're thinking the previous ads didn't really show anything, here's one with a nice rear view of Harry.  In addition to advertising their car, Alfa Romeo boasted that they were supporting Heart Research UK with a £100 donation for every new red Alfa Romeo MiTo car sold in the month of August, 2011.

Harry Aikines-Aryeetey has been photographed nude outside of the Alfa Romeo ads.  This is as close to a frontal view of him as it gets.

But here's another rear view of Harry.

Iwan Thomas is less bashful.  This is from a video he made.

Ads - Part 81

 Air New Zealand

Air New Zealand ran a commercial in 2009 touting that their fares have "nothing to hide", i.e. they were all-inclusive.  Above is an excerpt from the Nothing to Hide commercial.  Note that the uniforms are painted on.  Although they don't show a frontal view, they do show a rear view.

Here's a screen grab showing the rear view of the painted-on uniforms.

Ads - Part 80

 Shape-It Weight Loss Patch

This is a commercial for a weight loss patch from the German company Shape-It.  What the connection is between the naked young man and a weight loss patch is not explained.  I think the reason for including him in the ad was to attract women, the target audience for the product.

The video was posted online in 2014, so the commercial aired in or before that year.

Weight loss patches are adhesive patches that are stuck on the skin and transfer medical ingredients through the skin.  In the U.S., no weight loss patches have been approved by the FDA.  There is a lack of evidence that they work, and some of their ingredients may cause side effects like headaches or rashes.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the Shape-It company seems to have gone out of business – their website no longer exists.  But they gave us a nice commercial to look at.

Ads - Part 79

Danish Skin Care

This 2002 skin care commercial was put out by Apotekerne Danmark, the Danish Pharmaceutical Association.  Apparently set in a locker room, a good-looking blond guy is applying some kind of cream or lotion to his skin.  He sees a little nerdy guy strip naked – we get to see his butt.  I didn't understand the blond guy's reaction – I thought he was gay – until a reader pointed out that the nerdy guy is apparently very well-endowed (the blond guy looks at him and then looks down at himself).  After this, the narrator tells us that the body's largest organ is the skin, and apparently "largest organ" is a sly reference to the nerdy guy's large organ.  A bit of humor from the maker of the commercial.

Ads - Part 78

 Norway for Natural Reasons

Yesterday we saw the photo above – a guy standing naked on the Kjeragbolten, a rock wedged between two cliffs above a fjord near Stavanger, Norway, with a drop of over 3000 feet on each side.  Should naked images like this only be shared among friends and never be viewed by the public?

The Norway Convention Bureau thought otherwise.  This organization promotes Norway as a place to hold conferences and conventions.  They added the words "Norway for natural reasons", above, and ran the ad in industry publications, touting Norway as a good place to hold a conference.

At the International Congress and Convention Association meeting in 2009, this won an award for the year's best ad.

Above is another version of the ad.

And they used the image online, too.  Above is the first page of a pdf promoting Norway ...

and after many pages touting Norway, it ends with the page above.  You can view the pdf online here: Norway - Powered by Nature

Ads - Part 77

Aquijuego.co

This video is a commercial for Aquijuego.co, an online gambling platform in Colombia.  If offers a full range of casino games and sports betting options online, and it's licensed by the Colombian government.

The commercial is in Spanish, though you don't need to know Spanish to appreciate it.  It becomes interesting about 10 seconds into the commercial.

A commercial like this would never be shown in the U.S. because we're too prudish.

 

Ads - Part 76

 Elave

Elave is a brand of skin care products made by Irish company Ovelle Pharmaceuticals.  In 2007 they produced this commercial, a deliberate satire of their rivals' commercials, purporting to show their workers creating and testing products behind the scenes – except every single person in the commercial is naked, with plenty of frontal views.  The commercial touts how they have no unsafe ingredients, and it ends with the catch phrase "We have nothing to hide."

The commercial was shown online on the website www.nothing-to-hide.co.uk, which has since been discontinued, and it was also posted on YouTube, where it became a hit.  It was apparently not actually shown on TV.

Ads - Part 75

Privatbank, Ukraine

This is a commercial for Приватбанк (Privatbank), a Ukrainian bank, from about 2010.  The female bank employee says "In order to receive a money transfer, you will need to show some identification."  He says "I'll be back."

Unfortunately, we would never see a commercial like this in the U.S. because we're so prudish.

Ads - Part 74

The Club Baths

The Club Baths was a chain of gay bathhouses in the U.S. and Canada that operated from the 1960s into the 1990s.  Some of them are still in operation today under different names.

Today we look at the ads for these bathhouses.  I found multiple ads from the one in Houston, some of which also advertised the Club Baths in Dallas, like the 1975 ad above.

Another 1975 joint ad for Houston and Dallas.  Only a line drawing, but it was a bit more explicit than the ads featuring photos.

But some of the ads with photos showed quite a bit.  Here's a 1978 ad for Houston.

Another 1978 ad for Houston.

A third 1978 ad for Houston almost has a frontal view, but not quite.

A 1979 ad for Houston.  Give someone a helping hand.

A 1983 ad for Houston.

I also found some ads for the Club Baths in New York City.

Another New York ad.

 

This New York ad for Buddy Day at the baths featured a nice photo.

We end with this 1977 New York ad.  It appeared in Mandate magazine, so it was able to show a bit more than other ads, but personally, I like the previous ad for Buddy Day better.

Ads - Part 73

Volley Shoes

Volley is an Australian shoe company.  In 2016 they launched a "grassroots" ad campaign featuring young men and women clad in underwear or naked, wearing Volley sneakers.  Above, on a tennis court.

On the tennis court again, but with couples hugging.  Note that the couple on the right is gay, and the one on the left is lesbian.  The "grassroots" ads enthusiastically depicted gay as well as straight couples.

Another view of the gay couple hugging.

And this photo shows them kissing, though they're not naked.

The Volley "grassroots" ad campaign also partnered with Ansell condoms to promote safe sex.  Here we see a condom on a tennis racquet handle.

More was visible on the Volley website, like this video of underwear-clad and naked young men and women, gay and straight, running around and having fun while wearing Volley sneakers.

Predictably, the religious right, including the Australian Christian Lobby, was outraged by the ads featuring nudity and gay tolerance, and they railed against the ads.  The resulting publicity was great for Volley, whose profits that year went up more than 100%.

In late 2017, believe it or not, Volley launched a line of sneakers called "Fuck Off."  Here's a commercial for the sneakers.

The shoes actually said "Fuck Off."

Clearly Volley is going after a demographic that is not the religious right.

Ads - Part 72

Candy Bars and Energy Bars

Old Nick candy bars came out in the 1940s, produced by the same company that makes Bit-O-Honey.  Here's a 1948 ad for Old Nick.

Here's a fake version of the ad, where someone has changed one letter in the picture and the text.

And a slightly more elaborate fake, where the picture has been modified a bit and the wording has been changed to say "tastes like the old man's tool."

Old Nick candy bars were discontinued in the 1960s.

Clif Bar started in 1992 with a slightly different kind of product: energy bars that taste good but also contain ingredients to supply quick energy.  We came across three poster-size designs for Clif Bar ads by Richard Ward, showing a naked man hiking ...

biking ...

and climbing.  I don't think any of these ads made it into production.