Ads with arrogance

Although a recent poll showed 48% of respondents were upset "often" or "fairly often" by the way women are presented in French TV ads, the naked female form is considered a suitable way to promote anything from lawnmowers to margarine.

The first French commercial, projected before the featured silent film in turn-of-the-century cinemas, extolled the virtues of a pasta brand with the help of a scantily clad mademoiselle, and a recent pan-European TV survey found that French mainstream TV viewers were more likely to see breasts and bottoms during ad breaks than anyone else on the continent.

Current examples include ads for a security firm (a woman clad in a chastity belt with the slogan "Even in those days, it was a good idea to protect your belongings") and the car maker Audi ("He has the money, he has the car and he'll have the woman").

Suchard promotes its chocolates with a nude model and the words "You say no, but we hear yes" and a financial information database uses a pair of naked female buttocks alongside the slogan "Has she got decent foundations? Check out the solidity of your company".