The very cool MIT Advertising Lab (is there anything MIT doesn’t have a lab for?) brought the Shai clothing site (not safe for work - seriously) to my attention some time ago. On this site, the company attempts to sell clothing by providing rather racy erotic clips.

Today, the MIT Ad Lab links to this article at the SFGate indicating that, while the site certainly generated plenty of eyeballs, it didn’t translate into sales. Ad Lab blogger Ilya Vedrashko says of this, “Maybe it’s because erotic and violent images cloud vision.”

That, or maybe the site should have spent less time making porn and more time selling clothes. Like I said, I visited that site and I admit I specifically did it because I’m a pervert I was interested in the eroticism in context with its advertising message. The clothing seemed secondary to the porn, which is odd since the whole point of creating the site was to sell clothing. Someone got a wee bit too excited about the fact that they had boobies for their site and forgot the whole point of it.

I don’t think they’re necessarily on the wrong track, though. So, Shai, here’s my new ad idea for you:

We have a couple, both completely stark raving nude sitting sort of next to each other on the couch, each gazingly longingly at each other, each apparently trying to think through the “next steps” of this date they’re on. Suddenly, one of them strikes, grabs the other ans pulls him close. He, of course, rushes right in. They’re not in a pationate embrace, kissing madly and fondling one another. She grabs a shirt from behind the couch and puts it on him. He grabs a bra and snaps her in. We seem them quick-edit clothe each other in a set of the latest Shai fashions. Then they start… well, let’s call it frottage for now. Briefly. Then we cut to the end, both fully clothed, winded and completely satieted lying next to one another, perhaps smoking a cigarette. One asks the other, “Was it good for you?” Cut to logo. Yes, it’s the reverse of a mad sexual session where the couple gets robed rather than disrobed. It’s got a couple of things going for it - it has sex appeal, it conveys the idea that your clothes are somehow sexy enough to shag in and it’s unique.

For the online interactivity, you do dress up dolls - fully nude attractive young men and women that folks can then clothe with your fashions. Each time they pull out a top or a dress or whatever, they get a little info about the item they just selected. It’d different. It’s backwards. It will still get the eyeballs but, most importantly, it will end with the clothing. The perverts showing up to gawk at the nudity will come and go quickly. Forget about them. The ones who stop looking at the nekkedness long enough to see what the clothes look like, however, may actually buy, and they’ll clearly see the clothes since they just put them on the nude models.

Shai, drop me an email and let’s make this happen. Have your people call my people.