|
|
JUNE 2008 BEACON Sex Sells...At Least It Used To!
Nevada bordellos report that business is off; Owners debate how...or IF to promote <Advertisint Age><June 4, 2008>Think you have problems figuring out how to promote your business? What if you wanted to promote your business to help drive revenues, but in so doing you risk provoking a community backlash that puts your whole business at risk?
This is the dilemma faced by owners in the legal bordello business in Nevada. According to a report by Advertising Age, an industry trade journal for the advertising industry, Nevada brothels – legal since the late 19th century – are debating whether or not to take advantage of a positive legal ruling that gives them the OK to promote their businesses. (See the whole story here).
Traditionally considered a recession-proof industry, the bordello business has deflated an estimated 25-45% depending on location, according to the Nevada Brothel Owner’s Association director George Flint. The cause? At least one aspect that Flint points to is the rapidly increasing price of diesel fuel which, according to the report jumped 16.6% in the last week alone.
Noting that in southern Nevada, diesel prices have hit $5.25 a gallon, Flint says it can now cost a trucker over $1,000 to fill-it-up. “An awful lot of our customers are truckers,” Flint says. “It’s the disposable income factor: Money for new wristwatches and getting’ laid just isn’t there.”
With businesses off, it would seem the association and owners would consider it a windfall that a law prohibiting bordellos from advertising outside their immediate vicinity was recently struck down in federal court last July. And yet, many of the associations’ members are deliberately not taking advantage of the ability to promote out of fear of provoking communities into banning the brothels altogether. And they are angry at those bordellos that ARE promoting.
The report points out that government and the legal bordello industry have had an uneasy relationship for many years. Pumping nearly $400 million into the Nevada economy…which has been struggling recently with tax revenues decreasing and gaming revenues decreasing…politicians are not motivated to shut off the spigot. However, a former governor of Nevada killed a proposal to add an extra tax on the bordello business…a sex tax, if you will…concerned about the sex tax being looked upon as his legacy.
Did the bordello owners dodge an expensive bullet? Not if you talk to Flint who says many bordello owners WANTED the tax to help legitimize their industry!
So this is the tense environment that the owners face as they decide how to promote their businesses…but keep a truce with their communities. The debate is raging as Susan Austin, owner of the Wild Horse Adult Spa and Mustang Ranch has purchased a series of billboards that are placed on various highways declaring “the party’s at the Wild Horse.”
“It’s foolish to put up billboards that only irritate more than they attract,” says Jeff Arnold, owner of Donna’s Ranch in Battle Mountain.
Other bordellos are taking more of a value-added approach with casino-style VIP or frequent visitor cards offering, for example, a free tenth visit after purchasing the first nine.
Still others offer free food, “We market Donna’s as a home away from home for truckers. There’s always free chili, ham and beans, and corn bread,” says Donna’s Arnold. Donna’s also prefers to sponsor local car shows and senior pro rodeo…rather than engage in an aggressive overt advertising campaign. [Photo: Reuters] |
|
|