10 Hot Spots: The Steamiest TV Commercials Ever
Sex Sells. Ad industry veterans rate the raciest U.S. ads of all time.
June 11, 2009— -- In a 1991 Pepsi commercial, supermodel Cindy Crawford steps out of a red Lamborghini at a remote roadside rest stop. Wearing a white tank top and denim cut-off shorts, she flicks her hair and saunters over to a vending machine, where she buys--and drinks--a can of ice-cold Pepsi. She's oblivious to the two young boys who are watching, spellbound.
The Pepsi commercial, which was created by Omnicom agency BBDO and last aired during the Super Bowl 17 years ago, was rated as the sexiest TV commercial among 35 viewed by eight judges from the advertising industry.
The ad vets rated it and several other sexy-yet-understated spots higher than more explicit commercials, including a Carl's Jr. commercial featuring Paris Hilton washing a car and a perfume spot with Britney Spears hooking up with a fellow guest in a hotel. The judges said they liked racy ads that left something to the imagination. They thought that even sexy ads should relate to a product's supposed benefits.
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"The sexiest spots are suggestive, but they aren't over the top," says Bill McCuddy, ad critic for Forbes. Market research firm Luntz, Maslansky Strategic Research in New York City provided handheld meters that the judges used to vote on the commercials. Each judge had a meter with a dial that allowed them to record second-by-second reactions to each of the ads.
The judges agreed that the simplest images are often the steamiest. The 2007 ad for Johnson & Johnson's Rembrandt tooth-whitening products shows a couple kissing passionately and the tagline "Take Care of Your Mouth. It Can be Brilliant." The intimate image is "sexy and human--and more realistic," says Michael Lebowitz, founder and chief executive of Brooklyn digital agency Big Spaceship.
The opposite is true of slapstick, sophomoric humor in ads that feature women as over-the-top sex-crazed creatures. Those offenders? GoDaddy.com, the domain name registrar; Clairol Herbal Essences shampoo; and Old Milwaukee beer, now owned by Pabst Brewing Company. An ad featuring the overly endowed, blond "Swedish bikini team" in a 1991 commercial got a collective eye roll from the Forbes judges. "These spots show me that we have a very limited palette," says Bill Bruce, chairman and chief creative office of BBDO New York. "It becomes not smart and offensive very quickly."
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