Let’s be straight, French cosmetics firm NARS isn’t exactly shy when it comes to its marketing.
With product names that include Satin Orgasm Lipstick, Velvet Matte Lipstick Pencil Sex Machine and Lipstick Sheer Sexual Healing you quickly get the drift about the space the brand wants to play in.
And a just released social media campaign for the its latest lipstick collection, After Hours, appears to follow a similar pattern.
The ad features a NARS lipstick melting in reverse with a caption that reads: “When the nudes keep you up all night.”
However, as many viewers have pointed out – and was undoubtedly the intention in the first place – the melting lipstick does look remarkably like a penis. Check it out below:
Uh.
The new ad for @NARSCosmetics lipstick 😳
Look at the caption pic.twitter.com/jhLBfyHYDV
— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) August 11, 2019
And what’s a social media campaign without a bit of social media backlash?
Although many respondents found the ad funny, others thought the brand had missed the mark this time.
“This makes me want to buy one, said no one ever. Gross,” penned one angry Twitter user.
Another wrote: “Wow! Remind me NOT to purchase anything NARS sells.”
“This is too far. Teenage girls make most makeup purchases. I wouldn’t want my kid thinking this ad was cool,” penned another.
“Clearly, they are not targeting the lipstick lesbian market,” penned one wag.
However, other fans of the brand noted the campaign was inline with previous and equally provocative marketing.
“I mean….they have an entire line of products called Orgasm so this is kinda par for the course for them,” wrote one user.
While US model, actress and author Chrissy Teigen weighed-in: “Honestly in love with this colour and now I must have it to soften my boner.”