Sex sells but does it prevent sales?

So, let's talk about French advertising. This ad was released in late February. The phrase at the bottom reads "Smoking, it's being a slave to tobacco" though to me it seems to say something more like, "Smoking it's sucking the d*** of cigarette companies." Let me translate and summarize some main points I read about it from an article in Le Figaro. The advertising company first explains itself by arguing that the rising rates of young smokers require more shocking advertising campaigns. The Ad.Co. states that young people see their first cigarette as a form of emancipation when in reality it is nothing more than an act of submission. Thus, they chose to use an image of sexual submission as a metaphor which directly speaks to young people.

But, the Ad.Co. got a lot of flack from feminists, politicians, tobacco companies, and the public at large for the other implications of their advertisement- namely pedophilia, rape, sexual abuse, and general bad taste. In the end, this campaign was put to a stop because it was deemed too ambiguous. This is a translated quotation that seems to sum up that confusion. In response to this ad, a spokesperson for Movement for Women's Liberation in France says, "To my knowledge, practicing fellatio does not provoke cancer."

So, for once in the history of French advertising, sexuality in an ad was met with opposition. It seems that nothing, not even sex, will get French people to stop smoking their beloved cigarettes.