The Civony Girl
Who is the Civony girl?
You’ve seen her countless times the last few days if you’ve been browsing tech sites, and probably even more times today, since she seems to be feeding off the keyword “pirates” and the blowup over the Pirate Bay conviction.
I spotted her the for first time on a TechCrunch post in my RSS while I was reading on my lunch break. I think all heterosexual guys in that situation make a mental note to figure out who she is. I didn’t see the PG version to the right (click the image for the PG-13 eyeful).
Later, when I was catching up on tech news, I spotted her again. A quick Google search revealed that I was not alone in succumbing to the primal marketing. I agree with other bloggers that the Civony advertisements are the most risque I’ve seen on Google’s ad network.
I’ll get into the juicy details first to placate the majority of people who will find this post, and then I’ll break into a marketing rant for those that care about the real reason I am writing this.
First off, what is Civony?
Apparently, it’s a browser based city building strategy game. Kevin Sung has a full wrap-up with the lusty (apparently lust-less) details. The game is a Civilization clone (even uses the same font), whose creators obviously could not come up with a decent original fantasy name–”Let’s combine the words ‘Civilization’ and ‘Colony!!!’. This forum has a great post that explains how the game’s revenue plan isn’t exactly player friendly (and players aren’t happy about it!)
But back to the babe:
EDIT: A comment from Dom (see below) reveals the girl’s true identity:
The girl is just one of many costume models, in particular she is showing an “Adult Forest Fairy Costume” which can be found on a number of costume warehouse style sites, but I believe was primarily from here:
http://costumecraze.com/FAIR82.html?SSAID=87543
Be sure to read his comment for the full scoop! Here is the full resolution pic.
Not only is Civony being heavily criticized as a scam–apparently their marketers are taking the cheap way out and are stealing imagery from costume websites! I doubt they secured permission to use the image they have implemented in their ad. The true identity of the Civony girl: She’s just a model for a costume reseller, but at least you can purchase the costume for your girlfriend or wife!
Now for the marketing rant:
Even though I will admit I generally ignore advertisements when I am reading my RSS feeds, as a 23 year old heterosexual male, I can’t deny that I definitely paid attention and looked closer when I spotted the Civony advertisement.
As a marketer, and a conscious fiancee, I am troubled that I succumbed to such a cheap marketing trick.
I’d like to think that most marketers that aren’t in the Adult or male and female fasion, style, and beauty publishing and product fields try to avoid stooping to the level of using sex to sell, but I have to admit that it does probably provide greater return on investment than any other method of advertising–almost regardless of what your product or service is.
The girl is pretty, and I know that a lot of males would brim with excitement if an attractive woman addressed them as “my Lord.”
The sad, but inevitable thing about the advertisement is that it is working. I don’t have time for, or interest in, playing online games, but I clicked on the ad.
I am honestly shocked that the Civony ad was being displayed on a major ad network, and I feel that although it is not by most standards sexually explicit, I hold the opinion that it is not family friendly or safe for all audiences. Most of the mainstream advertising networks have policies that prohibit sexually suggestive advertisements, and I can’t really figure out how this ad was approved by the censors.
My thoughts and opinions about sex in advertising aren’t really collected right now, and I’m sure they are still developing, so I will digress from further analysis. I do have some questions, though:
- What is the future of sex in mainstream internet advertising (Google)? Will major networks have to relax content guidelines in order to maintain revenue?
- When and where is it professionally and socially acceptable to use sex in advertising, and what are the boundary lines?
- Why are the ad networks’ standards censors allowing advertising with sexual content to appear on their networks?
- Why are ads that contain obvious non-parody copyright infringement being approved?
Disclaimer: I only have eyes for the woman to whom I am engaged. The words that I have used to describe the woman in the Civony advertisement are used only for SEO, and because they are the general language which I believe web surfers would seek when looking for information about the attractive woman in the advertisements. I understand that many people probably believe she is being depicted in a demeaning way, and I want to note that I agree that the advertisement is unwholesome.