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Thursday, 22 November, 2001, 23:23 GMT

Sex shop launches ecstatic ads


Covent Garden
The ads were launched in London's Covent Garden
Women's most intimate moments are about to be made very public with the launch of an advertising campaign for a chain of sex shops.

Photographs of 11 women apparently at the moment of orgasm will feature on the new ads for Coco de Mer, the sex shop founded by Sam Roddick, daughter of Body Shop owner Anita.

Saatchi & Saatchi advert
A second series of shots, to follow up the first on the internet and billboards and flyers around the UK, shows images of everyday objects arranged to resemble female genitalia.

The models for the adverts are some of the 40 friends who helped generate the idea behind the Coco De Mer venture, which Ms Roddick runs with two partners Adae-Elena Amats and Gabriella Langreiter.

Saatchi & Saatchi, who designed the adverts, said they aimed to show the creative and sensual side of the erotic to a more contemporary audience.

Breaking taboos

Saatchis' executive creative director Dave Droga said:

"The advertising is powerful because it challenges viewers' perceptions of their individual sexual boundaries in an original way.



The ASA will investigate any complaints it may receive about these posters
Advertising Standards Authority

"It is breaking a lot of the taboos.

"These are real people having real orgasms and the end result is a visual assault on the senses."

Adam Scholes, art director of the first series said:

"These are war faces. The photographer was shaking and sweating after he took these."

But some critics have accused Coco De Mer of using shock tactics to raise their profile.

An spokesperson for the Advertising Standards Authority said: "The British Codes of Advertising and Sales Promotion are quite clear: no ad should cause serious or widespread offence. The ASA will investigate any complaints it may receive about these posters."

The first series was released on Thursday to coincide with the opening of the first Coco De Mer store in London's Covent Garden.


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