YouTube - Chocotravel
Using naked and/or scantily-clad people in advertising is not a new concept. All you have to do is check out all those Carl’s Jr. ads, the Calvin Klein ads with Justin Bieber or pretty much any ad involving David Beckham back in his heyday.
Whatever it is a company is selling, whether it’s burgers, shoes, underwear, jewelry, whatever, everyone knows that, like it or not, beautiful people wearing very little clothing moves product. It’s simply not something that is going to go away. Crazy as it sounds, people like looking at attractive people and often want to buy what they’re selling. This is not revolutionary stuff here.
So why is a Kazahkstan travel company, Chocotravel, in so much hot water for using semi-naked women in their ads? Granted, I could understand it if they only used women, but as you can see below, they were equal opportunity sex offenders. Whoops, bad choice of words. You know what I mean.
The ads were reportedly created to symbolize that using their company for one’s travel needs literally adds “nothing” to the price of a plane ticket.
According to Metro, the company has been “accused of demeaning women with users calling it ‘disgusting’ and ‘cheap’.”
Russia Today reported Chocotravel director Nikolay Mazentsev defended the video on Facebook: ‘The video is bold and shocking, but we did not want to hurt anyone’s feelings, and regret it if it happened.
‘The advertisement shows exactly as much as you can see on any beach or in the pool. You do not attack girls in short skirts and people in swimsuits?’
Check out both videos below…
So what do you think? While the ads featuring both sexes may have probably been in poor taste, did they really do anything else wrong?