Revealed: Secrets of the "Women: The Emotional Sex" Viral Ad Campaign

Zell Miller: No lipstick for this pig, either

After many years of trying to track down this story, our correspondent was finally ushered into the offices of advertising guru Jerry DelloMasculino in Manhattan last week. He's the man currently in charge of the most successful and longest-running ad campaign in U.S. history – "Women: The Emotional Sex."

What? You don't remember the ads? That, of course, is the beauty of the campaign. But let's let Jerry explain.

Q. Jerry, why are you willing to spill the beans now, after denying the existence of this campaign for so many years?

A. Well, the campaign to portray women as the emotional sex has been so successful that it looks like there's no way anyone can undo it. People don't think it's opinion anymore - they think it's just the way things are.

Q. How did the campaign get started?

A. This was actually the world's first viral marketing campaign. Beginning with how Eve tricked Adam, men have been repeating the same message over and over again - women can't be trusted.

Q. Wouldn't it have been better to run a positive campaign instead, about how emotionally steady men are?

A. Just too tough a sell, just too tough a sell. Ever see a woman lead police on a 90-mile-an-hour car chase? Or rob a bank? Ted Bundy. Al Bundy. George Bush. Even I can't put lipstick on that pig. I remember someone once suggested we build a positive campaign around Tom Cruise as our poster boy - that was a close call.

Q. But how have you kept this ad campaign secret for all these years?

A. Now here's the best part. Every few years, we hire a few guys to whisper in the ears of a few women that nothing turns them off more than a woman who acts like a man. We follow up by making sure our advertisers put their dollars into Cosmo and Extreme Makeover instead of The Nation or Ms. Just keep those gals focused on waxing, dieting and injecting Botox. Pretty soon the women themselves keep the campaign going for us.


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