December 5, 2001

2:41 AM

Fashion & Farm SexBenneton Group company Sisley is well known for ...well, uhm... different images in advertising campaigns. Right now they're using cute animals and evil girls... What do you think about that?
posted by heimkonsole (40 comments total)

I couldn't get past the "evil girls" so in an advertising aspect this ain't getting the marketing out. Artistically this site is rather "cute".

Evil.Girls.Animals.
posted by DBAPaul at 3:00 AM on December 5, 2001

I love it.
posted by Hypnerotomachia at 3:51 AM on December 5, 2001

Where do I go to join the Future Farmers of America?
posted by MAYORBOB at 4:00 AM on December 5, 2001

they (sisley and benetton) have a flagship store here in hamburg. inside, they have huge blow-ups of those pictures that seem to attrakt quite some audience and attention. the site, sisley.com, has been up and running (and touting) the farm sex theme for quite some time. personally, i think it is funny and cute. then again, maybe that is just because i am weird and european ,-)
posted by HeikoH at 4:04 AM on December 5, 2001

I thought it was just as annoying as any other advertising . . .
posted by jeremias at 4:07 AM on December 5, 2001

like everything else about fashion, I think it's dumb.
posted by mcsweetie at 5:39 AM on December 5, 2001

Up in my neck of the Northwoods, we prefer traditional farmer/livestock relationships.
posted by MrBaliHai at 5:40 AM on December 5, 2001

I dunno, looks like an advertising company using sex to sell product. Hey, lady, nice tits!

Is there anything more to it? Post-911, America is looking for wholesome stuff like barnyard chic, instead of unwholesome stuff like heroin chic? Something like that? Doesn't look like the age of irony is over, though.
posted by Slithy_Tove at 5:47 AM on December 5, 2001

Anybody else click on the "milk" link under "Hungry for Love"? I think the close up of a woman's hand squeezing the cows teat with the milk squirting out, plus the other shot of the milk dribbling down her leg, well that's just great stuff. Great stuff!
posted by luser at 5:57 AM on December 5, 2001

any site that opens a new full screen window onLoad sucks sucks sucks ... no matter hot the porn is.
posted by danOstuporStar at 6:00 AM on December 5, 2001

Appalling. And I don't mean offensive, just... cheesy. Well-photographed cheese, sexy cheese, cheese with nipples showing, but cheese nonetheless.
posted by rodii at 6:05 AM on December 5, 2001

good lord, am i anyone's target demographic anymore?

this brand of "shock" advertising is lazy advertising, IMO.
posted by brigita at 6:29 AM on December 5, 2001

I think it's pretty funny. Maybe dolphins will be next.
posted by adampsyche at 6:44 AM on December 5, 2001

this is way too naughty to look at when you're at the office
posted by panopticon at 6:57 AM on December 5, 2001

If I were that pig I wouldn't have a thing to do with that snakey-looking woman. Parents, lock up your piglets.
posted by jfuller at 7:20 AM on December 5, 2001

It was OK, so far as advertisements go. Plus they make OK clothes as well. I don't think farmyard sex is an obvious connotation for most people, unless you start a thread on it. :) It reminded me of Russ Meyer's Valley of the Ultra Vixens, only ther girls are, well, thinner.
And, should a tangent be allowed in what seems to be a healthily tangential discussion:
any site that opens a new full screen window onLoad sucks sucks sucks
Does any wizard out there know how to cut them down to size, as they're becoming ubiquitous and indeed sucking, sucking, sucking at an increasing rate?
posted by MiguelCardoso at 7:31 AM on December 5, 2001

I don't think farmyard sex is an obvious connotation for most people, unless you start a thread on it.

Uh... the image of the woman lying on the hay with milk running down her thighs didn't do that for you?
posted by rodii at 7:33 AM on December 5, 2001

Shit, there I was all high and mighty and it turns out my mind's dirtier than yours - I thought the poster meant sex with farmyard animals...
posted by MiguelCardoso at 7:44 AM on December 5, 2001

The girl isn't nasty...it's the piggy that's nasty...the poor wittle girl just wants some wuv...
posted by bingo at 7:49 AM on December 5, 2001

I am left baffled once again. I just don't get advertising, I guess. I don't understand how little Slim Jim man making you so sick to your stomach you explode should make me want to buy Slim Jims, I don't understand how sepia-toned people rolling around in the sand is supposed to make me want to buy perfume, and I really don't understand how a girl covered in milk-cum-spooge (man, Latin just made that sentence much worse) is supposed to make me want to buy those clothes. Anyone? Anyone at all?
posted by headspace at 7:53 AM on December 5, 2001

Well, uh, the clothes are obviously very durable...?
posted by rodii at 7:57 AM on December 5, 2001

i think this is dirty, disgusting and bizarre. i love it!

btw, if the advertising gets people to talk about sisley then it's accomplished its mission.
posted by suprfli at 8:07 AM on December 5, 2001

Well, I was an advertising major once, and there is a popular idea that it doesn't make that much difference whether you like the ad. The point is that you remember the brand name. Supposedly, studies show that people are more likely to buy a product with an advertisement they hated than a product they're not familiar with. I would think it's just the familiarity factor.
posted by bingo at 8:08 AM on December 5, 2001

:::Deliverance flashbacks going through my mind...*shudder*:::
posted by adampsyche at 8:22 AM on December 5, 2001

I agree with bingo, they were obviously trying to make something controversial, which in my opinion comes off as a little bit tame. The interface sucks, though.
posted by signal at 8:27 AM on December 5, 2001

Rodii and Miguel: the Sonny and Cher of the 00s. I'm laughing my ass off.
posted by luser at 8:31 AM on December 5, 2001

Not quite porn, not quite art.

What do they sell? I never quite figured that out.
posted by tommasz at 8:32 AM on December 5, 2001

I think they sell barnyard animals...
posted by tj at 8:42 AM on December 5, 2001

I got dibs on Cher.
posted by rodii at 8:47 AM on December 5, 2001

Better than that, IMO, is Benetton's new Colors site.
Creepy.
Saddening.
Fashion!
posted by TiggleTaggleTiger at 8:59 AM on December 5, 2001

Oh fuck, I'm dead.
posted by MiguelCardoso at 9:00 AM on December 5, 2001

What the hell is going on with the beneton colors ad? Are these supposed to be institutionalized people? Its so creepy its hilarious.

Be warned, no sexy models here.
posted by skallas at 12:33 PM on December 5, 2001

Yeah, Bingo, I think they're counting on the idea that you'll remember the name. But I have to say, I used to shop at Benetton/Sisley, and they've really crossed a line -- from being politically provocative to just plain disgusting -- and I now have a negative feeling and no desire to shop there.

It's almost as strong as my adversion to FCUK. I absolutely will not shop there. I just feel like it isn't clever, it's ugly, and there's enough ugliness in the world. Not to mention plenty of other places for me to spend my cash money.
posted by edamame at 1:14 PM on December 5, 2001

Visited the Benetton site. Don't really get it. Are those really the new outfits from Benetton?
posted by Charmian at 1:56 PM on December 5, 2001

The photographs of condemned inmates for Benetton's "We, On Death Row" advertising were obtained under false pretenses: the photographer said he was working for Newsweek. Benetton had to pay to settle a lawsuit.

I am horrified by the photographs of what appear to be mentally ill men and women in Benetton's new Colors site. I do not believe these Cubans gave their informed consent to be used, to be exploited, for commercial purposes.
posted by Carol Anne at 2:36 PM on December 5, 2001

This is what happens with them there newfangled sexy adverts.....stay away from the sheep
posted by Oriole Adams at 4:26 PM on December 5, 2001

OK I give up. When I go to www.sisley.com, I just get a black page with the word 'SISLEY' in the center. Can anyone give me a link to the 'goods'?
posted by dragline at 4:28 PM on December 5, 2001

try again
posted by Oriole Adams at 4:30 PM on December 5, 2001

dragline.
posted by modofo at 4:36 PM on December 5, 2001

Now I'm hungry for bacon and sex!

Thanks a lot Sisley!
posted by Kafkaesque at 4:46 PM on December 5, 2001