We were shocked and dissapointed to read about Brazil’s Conar (their self regulatory entity) launching a huge investigation into the Devassa Bem Loura beer commercial featuring Paris Hilton. According to them, the spot is too sexually provocative. After reading about all the investigations and complaints we were excited…er, expecting to see some crazy stuff in the ad, but then we watched the spot and now we’re just confused. It uses sex appeal for sure, but overly provocative and sexist? Really?! I mean this is a Brazilian beer commercial, they’re KNOWN for being particularly racy. And Paris Hilton in the little black dress seems to be wearing more than most models in Brazilian beer commercials (examples below). American standards are a bit more stringent, but if we can’t have foreign ads pushing the envelope, who will do it? Maybe those of us at the Cyphers Agency are just a little desensitized. What do you think? Does the spot warrant all the negative attention and investigation?
Some other risque commercials from Brazil:
