Sex sells

Finally, a holiday discount on sex. The Museum of Sex in Manhattan has hooked up with Groupon, offering half off admission through Jan. 12. Instead of the usual $18, you'll pay just $9 to see such exhibits as Rubbers: The Life, History, & Struggle of the Condom and Action: Sex and the Moving...

POM Wonderful, the litigious juice maker pummeled by the FTC over allegedly touting its product as a remedy for erectile dysfunction among many other health issues, unveiled this week a star-studded national TV ad campaign soaked in erotic imagery. The campaign, a highly stylized black-and-white...

The New York Times reported yesterday that in Japan, young women are suddenly hot to become hostesses -- a once-scorned job that falls halfway between shot girl and stripper. At gentlemen's clubs, hostesses wear skimpy outfits, pour drinks and coo and purr over their customers; they're there to...

Erstwhile GoDaddy pitchgal Amanda Beard and I have a storied past. No, we've never met, and I've never been much of a swimmer so I barely paid attention to her Olympic escapades. But what I am is someone who writes a lot about the intersection of nakedness and money, so she and I have become...

Eva Longoria sells women swimsuits from Bebe and hair color from L'Oreal. But can she sell beer from Heineken? That was the question on my mind when I read that Longoria had been announced as the new spokesperson for Heineken Light -- she'll star in a television commercial set on the sidelines of...

A new survey out of Indiana University found that 53% of women and nearly half of men have used a vibrator at some point in their lives.The New York Times reports that "The researchers attribute the widespread use to easier availability and a cultural shift away from the bad ol' boy, Triple-X-rated...

Sex sells. It's the oldest truism of marketing -- Wikipedia's entry on sex in advertising mentions woodcuts -- but is it true? The answer is an unequivocal ... sometimes. It's hard to know whether a risqué image will have customers recoiling or grinning. I've covered naked marketing for...

David Beckham is so 1998. The new face of soccer chic is Cristiano Ronaldo, who like Beckham before him, parlayed a superstar career in English football at Manchester United into a massive contract with Real Madrid. The 24-year-old Ronaldo celebrated his just-signed, $131 million contract by...

Once, twice, three times a charm for Greenwich investment-firm chief Stephen Dent. The married heir to the Dupont empire has been extorted three times through the online sugar daddy website SeekingArrangement.com. Dent, 54, whose fortune is estimated at $100 million, lost a mere $200,000 on hotel...

The effects of the recession have reached all the way to the bottom of the trickle down economy. Brothels in Germany, where such businesses are legal, have been forced to resort to some imaginative marketing to stem the steady withdrawal of its Johns. According the The Independent (U.K), those in...