“Sex”-y Marketing

Add comment May 19th, 2008

Little is sexier than having your brand being an integral part of an uber-luxurious, hyper-chic world inhabited by Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte and Miranda…as luxury brands Manolo Blahnik and Jimmy Choo learned. The return of Sex and the City to the big screen has made for a match made in product-placement heaven for some new players - Mercedes Benz, Skyy vodka and Bag, Borrow or Steal among them - according to this recent piece by Ad Age.

That said, there’s lots of tie-ins and cross promotion being done as new brands try and jump on the Sex bandwagon…what do you suppose the image below (part of a print campaign) is advertising? The Movie or a Product?

Don’t discount the power or product placement - do you really think that six-inch heals that cost half a month’s salary would have made it into the national conversation without the cache of Carrie Bradshaw’s personal (albeit fictional) endorsement? I always wondered how a “writer” in New York City with no apparent full-time job could afford that swanky one-bedroom apartment AND those expensive shoes. There’s a lot to be said for escapism, I suppose.

(BTW, the ad above is for Skyy vodka…see the blue bottle superimposed over the building, just under the huge graphic of the movie’s title??)