Looks That Kill: Fashion Ads That Go Beyond the Call of Beauty

by Freddy Tran Nager, Founder of Atomic Tango + Advertising Admirer…

You see them in every fashion magazine: Preternaturally pulchritudinous models squeezed into sadistically form-clinging outfits that require three assistants, an elf, and a can of WD-40 just to get into. And after the shoot, the model needs four hours in a hypobaric chamber just to decompress.

This 2007 ad from fashion brand Wallis is like that. Only different…

While other ads feature models splayed in contortionist poses with brooding expressions that would make a Twilight actor envious, there’s not much else going on. Maybe a prop. Sometimes a male companion ripped from the cover of a Harlequin Romance.

This ad actually tells a story. Make that four stories. The models are still wearing outfits tighter than the skin on an obese python, but the grainy B&W images evoke stills from French New Wave cinema, and the men look like actual guys you’d see in a barber shop or conducting a train.

These ads make you stop. They make you smile. They make some men think, hmmm, maybe I’ll take my wife fashion shopping. And I’m guessing they make some women think, hmmm, this will get me the attention I’m seeking.

In a fashion magazine — which can contain hundreds of nearly identical ads — those are results to kill for.