In Tokyo, Women’s Thighs Are The New Billboards

Forget about tattoos — the next cool thing to have is an advertisement painted on your thighs. Tokyo-based PR consultant Hidenori Atsumi launched the idea to rent out the space on women’s thighs. According to The Guardian 3,000 Japanese women have already signed up for the service.

The women’s thighs are the perfect places to put advertisement, says Atsumi: “Guys are eager to look at them and girls are okay with exposing their thighs.” Women have to be 18+ to participate and should have at least 20 connections on their social media profiles. They are required to walk around for eight hours a day displaying the ads on their thighs. The participants are recommended to wear miniskirts and long socks to make their ‘billboards’ look more seductive. Moreover, a photo of the advertisement must be uploaded to their Facebook profile.

Thigh advertising in Tokyo

The idea to use the human body as advertising space is an interesting and rather new urban concept. Some years ago it would have been absolutely not done to be associated with a brand, but since a while young people are okay with the idea that brands want to use them to spread their message. This probably explains the high number of interested young women to become a human billboard. Besides earning money it gives them confidence that their body is good enough for a brand to advertise on.

Thigh advertising in Tokyo

The advertisement concept reminds us of Beardvertising, an ironic concept that turns hipster beards into billboard space. Also the Legvertising guerrilla campaign by a clothing company from New Zealand that we featured some years ago, uses women’s legs to spread a message in public space.