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Citibank pushes its traveler's checks by showing a couple vacationing in Japan going native in a public bath: the wife cringes in embarrassment as a real native not only edges closer to make conversation but threatens to stand up to welcome the outlanders. The California Avocado Commission promotes the nutritional value of its green "love food" with the help of aging Sex Symbol Angie Dickinson, 49, who in December will sprawl across two pages of recipes in some 18 national magazines. The copy asks: "Would this body lie to you?" Ads for B.V.D.s, now made by Union Underwear Co. in Bowling Green, Ky., are heavy on beefcake: one has a cowboy happily shaving out on the range clad only in skivvies.
Evidently, sex sells. Puritan Fashions reports that sales of Klein jeans have risen so far this year to $110 million, up from $65 million in 1979. The company predicts that its fancy denims will bring in $200 million next year. But some admen fear that too much suggestive promotion may boomerang on the products being sold.
Hirsh believes that sexy ads may distract consumers: they "don't hear how good the product is," he says. J. Walter Thompson's U.S. chairman Burt Manning has another concern. His worry: "Numbers of viewers are going to conclude that 'only a flaky segment of society would respond to that kind of advertising. I don't want to be like those people, so I'm not going to wear that kind of brand.' " The products will be noticed, he says, but the ads will be turning consumers off, not on.