The Quirky Ladies is a group of eclectic (and dare I say quirky?) ladies who are passionate about writing romantic fiction. All types of romantic fiction...paranormal, fantasy, historical, erotic and contemporary. Bring it on!

Monday, February 7, 2011

What's Sexy?

Honestly, I'm all for the only non-profit community-owned professional sports team in America winning the Subperbowl. Go Packers!

But what I really want to talk about is that freaking Doritos commercial. You know the one...

Maybe it's an occupational hazzard, but I spend a lot of time thinking about what's sexy and what's not. For example, the other day I got it in my head that I wanted to describe something as spongy. And I tried. I really, really tried to work it into my scene - because the object in question does feel spongy. But then I had to accept what countless other authors have no doubt had to come to terms with in the past - there is no way to make "spongy" sexy. There just isn't.

So what is sexy? Love? Yes! Romance? You bet! Erotic romance? Oh, hell yes! Homo-erotic imagry in commercials? It sells! You don't believe me? Look at the picture above again. Is that how your coworkers behave? And note that even Doritos apparently thought they'd taken it too far, since they felt the need to put wedding rings on both the men. Those kinds of details don't happen by accident in advertising.

And what's not sexy? Finger-sucking! Oh, wait... I am certain this can be a very sexy thing to do. If you'd asked me before yesterday, I might have told you that it's always a sexy thing to do. But I would have been wrong.

When that man sucked his coworker's finger into his mouth, I (a woman who I think we can all agree has a very strong fondness for homo-erotic imagry) screeched like a banshee. It was hilarious. It was disturbing. And it sure as heck was incedibly effective marketing (because here I am, talking about it and craving that nacho cheese goodness every time I type the word Doritos). But definitely not sexy.

So does this ruin finger-sucking for everyone? Definitely not. As my wise friend Eric Ruben commented last night, it's not in the dust, it's in the delivery.

And thanks to the Frito-Lay corporation, I have finger-sucking on the brain today. I wonder what I'll write about tonight...

7 comments:

Penny Watson said...

Ugh! This commercial gave me the willies....big time! I am wondering if it made anyone want to eat Doritos. My guess would be....no. Probably made everyone cringe and scream "Ewwwwwww" at the TV.

Julia Rachel Barrett said...

Do you know that commercial, or at least the idea for the commercial, was made by college students from Utah? I thought it was great. Loved it, especially the look on the guy's face who's finger was being sucked.

Was it sexy? No, just funny.

Samantha Wayland said...

I have to admit, I did kind of like it, while being totally skeeved out at the same time. And Penny, I think you may find that a lot of people are buying Doritos today. My whole office was talking about it and complaining that now they were craving the chips.

Julia? College students from Utah? That's great!

Dalton Diaz said...

I think I'm the only person in America who hasn't seen this commercial. I was watching Eat, Pray, Love. Actually, I was ordered to stay home and watch it by DH. He and the boys went to the in-laws for Superbowl, and he wanted me to take the opportunity to watch the movie and get it the hell out of the house. See, it's a Netflix, and the sooner it goes back, the sooner he gets his choice in the mail.

Hunh. Why am I suddenly craving Doritos?

Michelle Picard said...

I'm like Dalton,I never saw the ad, never saw the Super Bowl. But Doritos still sound good. The power of suggestion is tremendous, whether you like an ad or not.

Lindsay said...

Eww and Ugg don't even begin to describe how I felt about this commercial. I know lots of people from Utah because I'm from Idaho and honestly, I'm not surprised that is where it came from. Let's just say that Nacho Cheese USED to be my favorite chip. The one with the grandpa was kinda funny but this one just turned my stomach.

Unknown said...

I just saw this commercial for the first time yesterday and my thought was "eeeeeewwwwwwww". But when I saw the look on the "suckee's" face, I laughed like a loon!!

I've absolutely hated even the smell of Nacho Cheese Doritos since the labor and delivery nurse that was attending to me had been eating bags of them before she bent down and breathed into my face during my labor.

All of your senses are in a heightened state during labor. I wanted to punch her in the face. :-)

It's been nearly 29 years and I still won't touch a Doritos. The do have entertaining commercials though.