sex sells! well so does crack ...

[NOTE: Transferred from blog.makeitmade.com]

One of the reasons that the makeitmade designs ended up taking the form that they did is because sex sells. But as mentioned by a videogirl in the Vh1 documentary I watched last night (hop videos: sexploitation on the set) - so does crack. So does that make it right?

I thought about this a little today - whether I should feel bad that at the core, my shirts are just about sex. Yes, to me they mean more and I hope they mean more to those who buy them, but the sex part is undeniably used as a hook and is the first thing you notice about the shirts (see: angry old man's reaction in prior post).

After thinking about it I decided I didn't really feel bad. The shirts are fun and they do mean something to me. I'm not telling people to go out and bang as many people as possible (I mean I'm certainly not as daring as the those stick figures). If they want to, that's cool. But the point of the t-shirts (apart from encouraging people to do something with their lives and not be afraid), is just to be a conversation starter - something to laugh about. But even if the shirts were just about sex, sex is a natural thing and I'm not exploiting anyone or promoting something that people should be ashamed of. So yeah. My verdict is that there's nothing wrong with using cartoon sex to make money as long as it's not hurting anyone.

Now to see slightly more questionable use of cartoon sex: Budapest Marketing Campaign