Sex Sells—Yoga. [Kathryn Budig, Jasper Johal, Toesox]
Fourth in a Series: This is What Effective Advertising Looks Like.
Kathryn Budig is blond (usually). She’s unusually lovely, like Seane Corn a yoga teacher built for America. She’s accessible, fun, friendly—and sexy.
Particularly with her clothes off.
It’s news to no one that sex sells. In fact, it’s advertising’s oldest adage.
And so, in a crowded advertising market, Toesox (100% organic cotton, we like)—and Hard Tail, but that’s another story—have doubled down on yoga and raised you sex. Still, sex can be a turn off when your market is 85% women—it can come off as cheap, sleazy, patriarchal, shallow, frivolous—something you don’t want to do with a demographic that would never call itself a demographic, but prefers community, kula, sangha.
Yoga practitioners, by and large, regard yoga as something more than exercise, and something less than religion. So it’s a tricky market to win with an ad, when said market has, by and large, got mixed feelings when it comes to commercializing their practice, and consumption generally.
That’s where Jasper Johal comes in. A photographer with an eye for the naked human form that goes beyond lech and harkens back to art class—to greco-roman appreciation for form and beauty—his photos capture a stillness and exertion that lies at the heart of yoga practice. He and Kathryn (and Toesox, it seems) are of their demographic—so they can go out on a limb with conventionally outrageous advertising that offends no yogi and catches the eye of every reader.
And that’s…what effective advertising looks like.
[slide]
~w.
Incorrect source, offensive, or found a typo? Or do you want to write for Elephant?
[...] To really “get” the ending of Episode #2, you have to read this article from Elephant Journal and peruse the accompanying pics. Now THAT’S funny. Filled under: [...]
[...] reviewed his Body as Temple yoga calendars from time to time, and his work with Kathryn Budig for Toesox (click for photos), and his exquisitely attractive yet tasteful work for Hard Tail’s [...]
[...] Johal is one of very few preeminent yoga photographers working today. He’s shot elephant favorite Kathryn Budig’s (nearly) naked ad campaign [...]
[...] As I always say, we do 39 posts to every one that’s silly or sexy…but since folks click 39x more on funny or xexy or controversial posts, you get what you [...]
[...] “My Lululemon poster:) up in Santa Monica.” ~ KB [...]
[...] like the idea, I have to admit, of connecting love and sex and all that crazy stuff with mindfulness. Why have a crush on the Jonas Brothers, or [...]
[...] [...]
The nudity in the JJ yoga images is incredible. Any group that deems them exploitation in any way just needs to get over themselves. Those images are fine art. Far too many people are just hung up and self absorbed with their PC nonsense. Truly those pics are a celebration of beauty.
I really like the toesox ads. They also make me more interested in learning about yoga. I don’t see the harm in the ads. They are very grateful and not at all pornographic. The naked human form can be extremely beautiful as artists throughout time have found. Yay Toesox and Kathryn Budig! Don’t let the killjoys deter your artistic creativity.
Autocorrect strikes again. That grateful should have been tasteful.
I like the toesox ads as well, though it looks like that woman has no vulva. I still would never buy toesox.
And Waylon, really, no, advertising that is just a little less porno but still limited to displaying female bodies is not "effective. Get off it. You really do need some feminist education, dude.
whoring yoga now is it? what next in the usa??
You'll have to ask yogitoes! Jasper Johal, the photographer, I know has taken a bunch of amazing photos of both genders, as well as handicapped, pregnant…