Sloggi has gone one pole too far.

Sloggi has finally gone one butt too far - Triumph the brand behind Sloggi, has been asked by the French advertising sector association to withdraw a billboard campaign for its Sloggi range, which has been widely condemned as offensive to women. The image depicts ladies in underwear and little else posing around poles in starstudded spotligts, reminiscent of a striptease stage.

Wanna see it? Of course you do. Read more.

Triumph has refused to pull the campaign - even though Sloggi ads are frequently on billboards placed near schools, their other favorite media buy being free postcards in bars and cafes. In another media, say a fashion magazine nesting next to Versace and Gucci ads, this ad might not offend as much as it does on a giant billboard outdoors.

"It's the striptease context which is the problem in the Sloggi ads... It is very damaging for the image of advertising," said Joseph Besnainou, director of the BVP association set up by the advertising industry to promote good practice. They worry that ads like these will prompt the government to replace the existing system of industry self-regulation with actual laws on what can and cannot be portrayed in ads.

If you want to make your voice heard in regards to these ads, Triumps headquarters snailmail is:

Triumph International
Spiesshofer & Braun,
Geschäftsleitung,
Promenadestrasse 24, 5330 Zurzach.
(Switzerland)

and their English website is at triumph-international.com , and for those who speak french sloggi.fr. (both sites are flash)

The Observer weighed in on the subject: "A hundred metres from the lycé e at La Celle Saint-Cloud in the Paris suburbs, the street poster for Sloggi's skimpy underwear could hardly be more cheekily positioned. With a national debate raging over girls wearing le string to school, the poster focuses on the bottoms of three adolescent girls writhing like go-go dancers in barely there underwear."

hat tip to Clayton who spotted the article at yahoo and ranted on adlist.

Adland® is supported by your donations alone. You can help us out by buying us a Ko-Fi coffee.
Anonymous Adgrunt's picture
comment_node_story
Files must be less than 1 MB.
Allowed file types: jpg jpeg gif png wav avi mpeg mpg mov rm flv wmv 3gp mp4 m4v.
caffeinegoddess's picture

I don't get it. So they think their target audience wants to be strippers/erotic dancers or some such thing? So much of fashion advertising makes no sense to me.

Dabitch's picture

Their target audience is me. I was one of the biggest sloggi fans, the underwear is great comfy cotton that won't loose shape or fade and whatnot. Great product, a brilliant logo - unfortunatly completly inane ads.

When I first saw their large ass-flaunting posters outside of a school (a very common occurance) I stopped buying Sloggi, and have never bought it since.

Never. Not once. And this is the girl who used to swear by Sloggi. So for the past ten years, they lost my patronage.

Idiotic. Stupid as hell. Why do they think I want to see these Barbie-asses on a giant poster? I object to the media, but also to the lazy ass (pun intended) so called creative - the concept is "show butts, blue backgrounds - make a big poster". It's insulting on so many levels.

Neaner's picture

That's funny - you and my wife seem to have the same opinion of Sloggi. Great product, great logo - crap ads. She works in advertising as well, maybe women within the business are extra insulted since the so-called-concept is so lame? Sexy ads and nudity usually doesn't offend her at all, she loved that infamous Gucci ad for example.

Neo's picture

Did Sloggi stop doing this shit? I haven't seen anything for a while.

(I wrote them a post card asking them to please create better ads back in 2003 to the address you list. Wonder if it had any effect.)

Hygge's picture

Us men don't want this, women don't like this...
The truth is, Sloggi believes this is what women think men want.