The Sexy Sell

The government of Formosa recently passed a law aimed at curbing a practice that has long been deplored as a phenomenon of the West: too much sex in ads. Praising the ban on low decolletage and high eroticism, the widely circulated China Post two weeks ago deplored "the gimmick of using sex as a selling point for everything from cough drops to synthetic fabrics. Advertising in Taiwan is often an offense to good taste and an insult to the intelligence." The advertisers have been somewhat more cautious since the law's passage, but, Asia being what it is, the prohibition is expected to be ignored before long.

Throughout Asia, admen take far more liberties with sex than their Western colleagues would dare. They run explicit commercials for aphrodisiacs and ads for contraceptives, use blatant virility symbols and vivid mammary illustrations, send out song-and-dance troupes singing suggestive ad messages. The new controversy over this emphasis on sex says something significant about the young and rapidly growing Asian ad business. After copying Western ads for years, Asian admen are now developing their own distinctly flamboyant styles. They are also finding new prosperity--and problems in the rising consumer economies of Southeast Asia.

Expanding Volume. Ads seduce the eye and ear everywhere in Asia. They blink in neon from signs that share the skyline with Bangkok's temple spires and from plump helium balloons in the skies over Taipei. Billboards in Rangoon hymn a product called "Monkey Brain Tonic." In Thailand, such popular TV shows as Alfred Hitchcock and The Deputy are often interrupted by commercials that run up to 15 minutes, and many of the country's 80 commercial radio stations carry eight-minute plugs--partly because time sells for as little as $1 a minute.

The volume of advertising is rising by about 15% a year. Last year it hit some $22 million in the Philippines, $26 million in Malaysia and $36 million in Hong Kong. Though most of the ad business is controlled by local, Japanese or Australian agencies, U.S. agencies are moving in fast. J. Walter Thompson has a staff of 100 in Manila alone, and Ted Bates & Co. has an interest in Hong Kong-based Cathay Advertising, which bills $4,000,000 throughout Southeast Asia. McCann-Erickson has opened offices in Manila and Hong Kong, and is starting up in Kuala Lumpur, Singapore and Bangkok.

Changing the Omen. Many of the local admen have been trained on Madison Avenue or in London, but most are Asians. They need to be: a fine feeling for local sensibilities is an absolute necessity. In color ads pitched to the area's numerous and affluent Chinese consumers, red means good luck, and yellow is the grand color of the ancient empire; pale blue--a funeral color--is used only by unsavvy art directors. A package tipped on its side suggests business collapse, and a half-filled pack of cigarettes conjures up visions of half-empty rice bowls. Because comets are ill omens, British Overseas Airways Corp. has renamed its Comet 4 "Hui Sing," which means "star of wisdom."

In rural areas where literacy is low, people recognize products not by their brand names but by the familiar symbols on the packages. Thus, admen promote Quaker Oats as "Old Man Oats" and Craven A cigarettes as "Black Cat." Translating foreign ads into the local language without regard for local tastes simply will not do. Japanese ad agencies hopefully exported cinema tapes showing Tokyo models riding motorcycles or slipping on their nylons. The ads flopped in Thailand, where the popular opinion is that Japanese women are conspicuously lacking in sex appeal.

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