Irish newspapers love a press call. This generally involves a young woman of attractive proportions in a bikini standing next to a grinning bald man and the product being advertised, which could be anything from drainage pipes to cars to hamburgers. In the “using sex to sell” stakes this qualifies as cheesy, but harmless. Compared to some international advertising campaigns, the press call or indeed the Hunky Dory’s crisps ad that caused all the brouhaha, look a little quaint. Here’s sexvertising at it’s best… or worst. You decide.

The tag line here reads: “Becoming a donor is probably your only chance to get inside her.” Kinda amusing and for a good cause. I can’t see the Irish Donor Network using something similar though.

Next up, here is one from Chupa Chups. According to Freudian thinking, some of us become orally fixated because of breastfeeding. Either we didn’t get enough of it or we liked it a little too much. I reckon he’d field-day with this one.

Then there is the master of subtle advertising. Step forward Mr Tom Ford…

But nothing compares to this advert from Duncan Quinn and it’s easy to see why it is regarded as the one of the most disturbing adverts ever by feminist groups. I don’t get upset by nudity in ads, or violence on television, but I can’t help but feel that using a rape-strangulation scene to sell tailoring beggars belief. Why? What’s the point? What exactly are they trying to say here? The male model looks rather smug and pleased with himself too as if he has had a grand old time. Maybe it’s meant to be a BSDM scene, but this advert deliberately blurs the boundaries between consensual sexual activity and rape/murder and not in a good way.