IT was the launch without a snag - at least as far as the product was concerned.
Yesterday saw the unveiling of a new advertising campaign for Pretty Polly tights. At selected sites around Dublin, billboards almost 30 feet high now display a pair of legs - belonging to a 19 year old German model called Shebi - clad in the company's hosiery. Costing more than £75,000, this "vertical media strategy" (as the campaign is described by Pretty Polly's advertising agency) will be legging around the country over the coming month.
"I'm hoping they will be traffic stoppers, said Pretty Polly's British manager, Mr Brian Daffy, over in Dublin for yesterday's inauguration. An accountant by training but a marketing wizard by instinct, Mr Duffy used to run Playtex where 2 1/2 years ago he dreamt up the now infamous `Hello Boys' Wonderbra campaign. The Wonderbra advertisements doubled sales at Playtex.
Now Brian Duffy wants to make a similar impact on the hosiery business. Making a clean breast of his new ambition, he commented "I think legs can be every bit as eye catching as cleavage." For once, he admitted, size is important. In addition to the near 30 foot posters being placed around Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Waterford in the days ahead, for the next week a 60 foot high banner showing the same pair of legs will be on display outside the Point Theatre.
If Mr Duffy manages to repeat his previous success, he will also reverse a decline in hosiery sales. Annual sales of tights and stockings in Ireland are worth some £30 million, with Pretty Polly holding about 60 per cent of the market. But "we had almost become medical in the way we presented the product and that was alienating the customer".