Skinvertising in Japan

So you’ve tried advertising on TV, in print and online, on the radio, you’ve put huge posters on billboards, but have you ever heard of skinvertising? Did you know that in Japan, you can rent an advertising space on… a girl’s leg?

A Japanese agency, Absolute Territory PR, began to pay young women to apply stick-on tattoos to their legs. What are the rules? The women put an ad on their leg and continue to go about their daily business; however, they are required to wear miniskirts or shorts to show off their ads as much as they can. They are also asked to post the pictures of the tattoos on social media.

As long as they’ve been showing the ad off during their nine-to-five, or roughly around seven-eight hours, they get paid a portion of the advertising fee, between $13 and $130.

Who are the clients, then? Everybody, from big brands to big bands: the rock group Green Day used the service to promote the Japanese release of ¡Uno! – to the pleasure of Japanese punk girls…

Would you consider using such an odd advertising space? What do you think?

by Katarzyna Kwasniewska