Tabasco Tan Lines on Beach

Tabasco’s offering at the Superbowl 2005 was Tan Lines, a play on the ‘hot babe’ approach to advertising. According to Hitwise, visits to the Tabasco Web site (www.tabasco.com) increased 118 percent after the Superbowl advertisement aired on February 6. To the sounds of the seventies hit, “Disco Inferno”, we see a young woman sunbathing on her towel on the beach. Her bikini is covered with the Tabasco Pepper Sauce label. She gets up and walks into her beach-side house for a bite to eat. She puts a few drops of Tabasco sauce in the seafood dip to have with her prawns.

Tanlines

The woman saunters over a sheep skin rug to examine her body in front of a full-length mirror. She lifts her bra strap to reveal not a ‘tan line’ but a ‘burn line’. Only thing is, she’s burnt under the Tabasco bra. She looks knowingly at the camera. The camera cuts to the culprit – a plate of prawns with a bottle of Tabasco Pepper Sauce, with the woman blurred in the background. Click on the image below to play the video.

McIlhenny Company shows the ad at www.tabasco.com in Flash, Quicktime, RealVideo and Windows Media, offering the Quicktime and WMV versions for download.

Credits

The ad was created by advertising agency DDB Dallas who also produced ‘Mosquito’, by executive creative director Craig Cooper, art director Briony Wilson, copywriter Rustie Kaster, producer Janice Bisson, and production business manager Christi Pitts.

The Tabasco Tan Lines spot was directed by Keith Rose, via Velocity Films and Crossroads Films, with producer Paul Albanese.

The spot was edited by Hal Honisberg at Chrome Editorial. Visual effects and online editorial was carried out at Company 3. Music was engineered and mixed at Ten Music by composer Transcenders and producer Rachel Dunn. Vocalist for the remix of “Tan Lines” was William Lee.

Disco Inferno

‘Disco Inferno’ was released by The Trammps in 1976 and featured on the soundtrack of Saturday Night Fever in 1977. The lyrics of the chorus are used in the Tabasco commercial: “Burn baby burn! Burn baby burn! Burn baby burn! Burn baby burn! Burnin’!
See my earlier post covering the Tabasco Mosquito and Dog Tattoo commercials.

3 Replies to “Tabasco Tan Lines on Beach”

  1. Purchased a bottle of your “new to us” jalapeno tabasco sauce 2 fl. oz. When opening it the entire top glass part broke off in my hand.
    Would appreciate your replacing!
    Send to: 10245 Lakewood Lane, Plattsmouth, Nebraska 68048

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