Hot Models De-Cry Turtle Egg Aphrodisiac Consumption

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To persuade Mexican men not to illegally consume turtles' eggs which they believe to be aphrodisiacs, the California-based group Wildcoast has launched an ad campaign featuring models with bulging breasts with the headline, "My man does not need turtle eggs because he knows they don't make him more potent." Unfortunately, few women are as hot as those found in models and, correctly or incorrectly, some men may feel the need for a little boost with sexual arousal.

As is always the case with these campaigns, anti-women-as-sex-objects group are speaking out against the campaign. The National Women's Institute, while behind the effort to end consumption of turtle eggs, feels the campaign portrays women as sex objects. But, stepping back for a moment and looking at this from a basic, instinctual perspective, women, for most men, are just that: sex objects. Now we don't mean that in a bad way and before the hate mail rolls in, putting aside the whole notion of human's higher intellectual yearnings, men are innately programmed to be sexually attracted to women. There's no changing that.

This ad (see another here), although created with an unrealistically hot model, is simply reinforcing the natural sexual desire a man has for a woman (yea, yea, there's the whole homosexual thing but that's another subject) and, by association, saying aphrodisiacs are unnecessary. The ad is using basic human emotion to appeal to men's basic human needs to deliver an important endangered species message. Does anyone really think an ad with a bunch of dead turtle on a beach would be more attention-getting?

Written by Steve Hall    Comments (7)     File: Campaigns     Aug-25-05  
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Comments

Dear Rant:
I agree. Guys who are eating these eggs WANT to look at women who look like this (duh! that's why Wildcoast used them).

The advanced, upright walking, metrosexuals out there won't suddenly back-slide into the Stone Age and the egg-eaters proably won't much care what the NWI thinks.

And maybe --just maybe -- some of them (those who can read) might even take their floor-dragging knuckles and button-up their waist-open shirts, put away the Brute and stop eating turtle eggs.

Now all that's needed is an activist group against stereotyping Hispanic men as over-sexed machismos and we’ll have a bona fide WWE Smack-down 3-way dance.

Posted by: KJohn on August 25, 2005 02:16 PM

Yummmm...threeway

Posted by: Jeff on August 25, 2005 03:37 PM

I object. The second ad didn't show bulging breasts!

Posted by: jimmu on August 25, 2005 10:06 PM

Gotta say, from a strategic standpoint - this campaign is pretty brilliant. Just the use of 'mi hombre' plays immediately on that machismo need to be a 'real man.' I'm a woman, some would call me a feminist, but the fact is, this is a campaign for a good cause... and the approach is a lot smarter than its critics give it credit for. You can't develop strategy for the way the world SHOULD be. You have to develop strategy for the way the world IS.

Posted by: Jen on August 26, 2005 10:02 AM

Jen...that is amazingly brilliant insight. Can I use it as an excuse for supporting all other sexually laced ad campaigns? :-)

Posted by: Steve Hall on August 26, 2005 11:19 AM

"...men are innately programmed to be sexually attracted to women. There's no changing that."

What then are you implying about men who are attracted to other men? I find this comment the most offensive part of both your assessment of the ad and the ad itself. Save for the fact that you discredited "most men" and women in general by saying women are essentially only sex objects. I am insulted and disappointed on so many levels.

Posted by: I thought better of you on August 26, 2005 11:40 AM

Fair enough but in terms of sheer numbers, *most men* are sexually attracted to women...versus men. I don't disagree with the notion that homosexualtiy can be innate...versus learned as many state. It just is waht it is. So I'm not implying anything about men attracted to men. In this case, the marketer went with statistical averages. More men are attracted to women and find them sexually attractive than men who feel the same about other men.

Posted by: Steve Hall on August 26, 2005 01:22 PM

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