Sexy shoe-selling for the shop?

We’VE always known sex sells, but Saatchi & Saatchi’s controversial “It’s not all sex sex sex sex sex…” poster for Club 18-30 served as a recent reminder. And before that, one of London listings mag Time Out’s best-selling issues shrieked SEX on the cover at a time when stories were scarce.

20/20 has now joined the harem with its hoarding for Dolcis in Reading. Dolcis has set its sights on becoming a “fashion business which sells footwear, rather than the other way round, it’s not a nice little shoe shop any more,” according to 20/20 head of retail business development unit Yaron Meshoulam. In other words, the chain is after a groovy upbeat cool new image (DW 7 April) and needs its hoarding to hype.

Hence the barefaced public reference to something rather intimate. The Mary Whitehouses of Reading have been less than ecstatic, says 20/20, and rumour has spread that a shoe fetishist is about to open up shop. But Meshoulam is confident that this “never mind the bollocks approach” will go down a treat….