Product placement is taking on new meaning as a telecommunications company in Russia is dangling its cell phones around the necks of naked models.
The Moscow Times reports Megafon, the country’s No. 3 provider is using nudity to gain market share by hawking its products in the July-August issue of Penthouse magazine.
“It’s all about branding and image,” Alexander Kazbegi, telecommunications analyst at Renaissance Capital told the Times. “You know, some cheesiness could be welcomed by the local subscriber community.”
The spread features dancers from Moscow’s Flash cabaret relaxing at a popular resort in Turkey.
 Advertisers use nudity to gain market share (Megafon/Moscow Times) |
Photos show a telephone hanging from the neck of a topless woman who is reclining in a pedal-boat, a woman holding a Megafon bag inspecting a bra in a hotel boutique, and a model with a phone secreted in her underwear.
The magazine is not being subtle about the advertising, as its cover proclaims the headline “Megafon – Pioneer of Mobile Erotica” and advertising officials call the price tag of a few thousand dollars a cost-effective campaign.
“To be frank, how do you differentiate yourself?” Kazbegi told the paper. “OK, you have a different [pricing] plan. But so what? Everyone will probably match it someday.”
The telecom company says the use of the nude models with help push its new multimedia messaging system allowing for the exchange of photographs and video clips.
“The new Megafon technologies make the fantasies with the magazine’s heroines all the more picturesque,” company spokesman Roman Prokolov said, according to the report. “You can meet a girl on holiday, take photographs and send them to your mother.”
The competition is not in any hurry to come up with similar campaigns.
“We believe that we can get to our clients by other means,” a spokesman for Russia’s leading mobile provider MTS told the Times, adding the company is not tempted to “exploit the idea that an interest in technology and an interest in erotica converge.”
