The war against the wedgie
It’s not easy selling underwear.
Companies aiming to get customers into their underthings have to walk the fine line between becoming too sexy for themselves - a misstep Victoria’s Secret recently acknowledged - and getting too deep into the decidedly unsexy engineering behind undergarments (how much do we really want to think about bra fittings, after all?)
Hanes is aiming to find a happy - and humorous - medium with a new series of ads that tries, in a silly but sexy way, to sell a pair of underwear guaranteed not to give you a wedgie.
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| Hanes |
The first of two commercials, featuring actress Sarah Chalke of “Scrubs” fame and directed by her co-star Zach Braff, show Chalke trying all sorts of goofball tricks to secretly get rid of her wedgie while two fans look on. When one more adventurous move lands her flat on her back, Chalke notices a display of Hanes' new No Ride-Up Panty and quickly heads for the dressing room.
In the next, Chalke – now sporting her new, wedgie-free underwear – watches other women trying to rid themselves of a wedgie while walking down the street. Then, in a print ad, a glamorous Chalke is walking the red carpet but worrying that a problem will “creep up.”
The potty-humor element of the ad campaign could have quickly devolved into tasteless oblivion if Hanes hadn’t been able to recruit an actress like Chalke, who exudes a goofy, “I’m your best girlfriend” charm. The ad also manages to address the topic in a relatively oblique way, resisting the urge to subject us to any close-up shots from behind.
The campaign is, in fact, entertaining enough that people might forget to question the entire premise of the product: really, a pair of underwear that promises to rid women of wedgies? Is that something the world has really been clamoring for?
The new commercials are set to debut on television Tuesday night. Click here to see the campaign on the Web.
