Altstadt-Lehel, Munich
When this building of the “Bayerische Hypotheken- und Wechselbank” was constructed in 1895, ‘sex sells’ was probably not the leading paradigm of business, instead statues of naked men and women where used as pointers to the famous greek past – Munich has a clearly philhellenic tradition, which might just have subsided a bit nowadays. We usually prefer to sell luxury cars to the Greek to paying for their debths.
I would have never thought of “sex sells” in combination with this kind of decoration … but somehow … perhaps you are wrong – perhaps the “sex sells” has been already there, in 1895?
I was probably influenced by the fashion-meets-finance reports like here in the New York Times.
And of course you are right: As wikipedia states, the use of naked females for advertising purposes started as early as 1871!
I like that … wouldn’t work nowadays, I suppose đ
But who’s buying tobacco anyhow, anymore.
The Bavarians … Bavarian tobacco, kind of …
wrong thread level of reply .. and I am fascinated with the little wikipedia w …. never seen that before …