French clothing store pilots porn ads

By Steve Malone

Posted on 15 Aug 2006 at 11:03

A French clothing company is out to prove the surprising insight that sex sells and that on the Internet it is possible to show more sex - and presumably shift more product.

According to a report in the LA Times Shai clothing has started showing French porn stars cavorting in the buff on a circular bed in a bid to interest the punters in £60 T-shirts.

The ads are also interactive. It is possible to stop the action to stop and examine the content of the advert. No, not like that. By rolling the mouse pointer over the actors' clothing in the Shai clip the dedicated fashionista can pull up a chart with details of prices and sizes.

Although online porn purveyors have used explicit content in their ads since the dawn of the Internet age, the Shia ads are seen as the first time a mainstream retailer has used pornographic clips to attract the attention of customers. The move is also made possible by the relatively unregulated Internet to use this kind of content, which is not possible in mainstream media such as TV or cinema ads.