All it takes is a cute model, a strip-tease and a catchy song to sell lingerie, right? But sometimes a little surprise helps.
An ad (watch above) for Wacoal's Mood Boost-Up Bra is racking up millions of hits on YouTube, perhaps in part because of the spot's big reveal in the last few seconds: The model is a dude.
Toyota pulled a similar stunt in 2012 with a commercial starring model Stav Strashko, a lithe male model whom Toyota dressed up as a woman until a last-minute reveal. Also, as Copyranter pointed out, Hema lingerie pulled a similar move (with less shock intended) when it cast male model Andrej Pejic to promote its push-up bras in 2011.
On its website, Wacoal presents what appear to be real women to model its bras. But the twist the company uses in its commercial -- even if it isn't original -- has gone a long way to generate buzz.
Wrote one YouTube commenter: "He's hot as a girl and a guy."
You can check out behind-the-scenes footage of Wacoal's campaign here.
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