I saw the Apprentice last night and the task was to create a 4 page spread in Redbook magazine for Dial soap.
All the teams wanted to do a racy spread and one team held back a little. Redbook magazine is geared towards middle age women with the average age being 37. It was really funny how Mr. “No Filter on his Mouth” Piers said that the people who read the magazine are women who have lots of sex! I suppose it’s true because women peak sexually when they are in their 30’s I believe. So why not target your ad with sex? Sex sells and it’s amazing the power.
Ok, here’s what happened. First, if you missed the show and need to catch up, do so - here is the episode of the sexy apprentice so you can follow my thoughts!
Team Hydra did a clean white page spread with the model, it really did look great. the other team did a ad with a metaphor about the desert being dry and dry skin. It was good, for art that you hang on the wall and analyze. But for the average reader who flips through their magazine, they will not pick this up, I would not have and I’m a pretty smart woman. The metaphor would have been great to dissect in English class in high school but for the busy modern day women, it’s too busy to think about and it’s only an ad anyway, no one really focuses much attention on the ads, we just flip through the book. The ads that we do respond to are simple ads ads with sex appeal.
It’s funny how a semi-naked woman can sell something to women. It’s completely opposite as selling to a man because for the women, when we see a half-naked women, we feel her. We are sexy like her and if we buy the product, we are sexy like her. the man sees this and thinks “i want to kiss that girl” and various other kinky thoughts.
Anyway, the final spread about the photo shoot has man biting the girl’s shoulder. It was on the racy side but they won anyway. It was pushing the envelope for such a conservative magazine, but after all, these women are sex drive deep inside. They are the ones who buy their sex toys from non-smutty stores.
I am not in my 30’s yet bit I feel like I am, I am conservative and do not enjoy overbearing sexuality images in my face. I’m not ugly or fat, i’m actually very pretty but I believe that sexuality is a gift that should be shared with your lover in a relationship, not with the world.
I was opposed to the shoulder biting because that’ not what women want to see, however it is ironic because I wonder how many women this happens to during their intimate moment in the bedroom. I think we are more kinky then we think we are, we just don;t show it as much. I found a sex shop, that reminds me of Redbook magazine, not targeted to men and women in their 20’s and a more conservative approach to adult toys and adult novelties. Hey, women in their 30’s need sex too! Back to the sexy apprentice now…
The other team had sex appeal but the metaphor is what made them loose.
They also wanted to do a spread that had Trace Atkins with his shirt off with two other half naked male models that were drop dead gorgeous on the page. I though it looked a little too homosexual. In fact it did. Women don’t mind seeing shirtless men but they have to be with a woman who is gazing at them or the whole thing seems gay.
Funny how that it but that’s just they way it was. in the end, i think that if team Empresario would have chose to include the half naked men in the Magazine ad, they still would have lost because it was the metaphor that was too far fetched. A sexy episode and tons of fun to watch. I loved it!