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Lawyer With Racy Divorce Ads Exposed -- Literally!
Remember the racy billboard ads posted by Chicago law firm Fetman, Garland & Associates that raised so much controversy last spring? The ads featured two photographs, centered on the chest of a scantily clad man and woman with the slug line, "Life's Short. Get A Divorce."
Now, one of the firm's principals, Corri Fetman has revealed something else about her firm's revealing ads. In this press release issued today, we learn that "the sexy female in the ads is none other than Corri herself." Fetman first shared "the naked truth" about the ads in the February 2008 issue of Playboy, which includes another law firm ad, a "provocative nude pictorial of Corri" and a new online column by Fetman, entitled Lawyer of Love.
Like Larry Bodine, I too agreed that Fetman's billboard ad was an effective form of advertising, because it made a point clearly, provoked an emotional response and generated buzz. But the nude spread in Playboy goes too far. As a pure marketing ploy, I'm hard pressed to figure out what kind of clients Fetman is trying to target by posing nude in Playboy. Even if her spread did generate some decent clients, Fetman would spend hundreds of hours culling through all kinds of calls from various perverts and weirdos contacting her for reasons other than aggressive legal representation. Moreover, while I certainly don't have a problem with a lawyer posing for Playboy, using the photos as a marketing tool makes me question her analytical abilities. Does looking good naked make her a better or more effective lawyer? Even as a fan of creative marketing, I'm struggling to discern any connection between a well written brief and a well built, briefly clad physique.
If Fetman's going to issue a press release about her Playboy appearance and make reference to her status as a lawyer, it seems that she ought to show how these achievements will help her better serve clients. Otherwise, her display is nothing but an exercise in vanity -- and personally, that's not a quality that I particularly appreciate in a lawyer.
Posted by Carolyn Elefant on January 11, 2008 at 03:08 PM | Permalink
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