Cosmetics company owner strips off in NZ to promote UK product

By NZPA

Monday 14th May 2007

The owner of a British skincare company says she has seen her sales soar by 500% after stripping off in New Zealand to make the first full-frontal nudity advertisement seen in Britain.

Joanna Gardiner, 38, said the New Zealand actors and crew making her 60-second advertisement -- in which she wears just a pair of headphones -- all stripped off as well, including the camera operators.

"New Zealanders are so laid-back that they made it seem totally natural," she told the Daily Mail in London.

The advertisement -- posted on video website YouTube -- has been used in a "viral marketing" campaign by her company, Ovelle, relying on word-of-mouth and forwarding through emails. Over 350,000 people have seen the video.

Gardiner flew to New Zealand in March to shoot the video for the product, which features the slogan "Nothing to Hide".

The brunette businesswoman, who has been nominated for Irish entrepreneur of the year, said she had been reticent about the 16-hour shoot, but the NZ director made the entire crew -- including the camera and sound operators -- strip on the closed set.

She said: "I was obviously nervous about appearing naked -- it seemed a bit like going on the beach after a winter of being covered up.

"Everyone apart from me is a professional actor and there was an atmosphere of respect," she told the LifestyleExtra website. "The director made the crew strip to make it fair.

"We were on set filming from 6.30am to 10.45pm, so we got used to being naked and it was quite normal -- we started talking about the weather.

"Now I know what it must be like to visit a nudist beach because it's true that you do stop noticing everyone is naked after a while, although at first I felt like a complete prude."

Gardiner said her own naked ambition did have limits, and she left the starring roles to professional actors, while a laptop covered her modesty.

Gardiner's business was started by her grandfather in Dundalk, Ireland in 1934, and is a bestseller in that country. The company has a turnover of STG 2.7 million ($NZ7.4 million) and its colour, alcohol and soap-free products are sold in the UK online and in large chemists' stores.

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