Nando’s: ‘little hotties’ campaign is sassy not sleazy

Restaurant chain Nando’s has moved to head off criticism that an online element of its ‘Little Hotties’ campaign, which features women in burlesque-style lingerie, is guilty of objectifying

women. Nando’s marketing director Kim Russell told Mumbrella that the video on microsite, which as of last night had received 30,000 visitors, was no more than “sassy and cheeky”, and in

line with Nando’s brand positioning. “It was a landing page for a microsite, and was right for our target market. We would never run anything like that on TV. The piece was not meant for

mass reach,” she said. The campaign to promote Nando’s first snack range, the Pequeno Mini Burger and Mini Pita, is targeted mainly at 20-29 year olds, according to a Nando’s marketing

briefing. ADVERTISEMENT Above the line activity has focused on radio, outdoor and instore. Russell pointed out that the site had been styled by Nando’s marketing team, most of whom are

women. “We had an internal debate about whether to have guys in the video too. But we decided that that may have been sleazy,” she said. Russell appeared on Seven’s The Morning Show this

morning, and said that the campaign was “just a bit of fun” and was not meant to be controversial. The site was created by an agency in the UK, which had been handed the project as a first

assignment following Nando’s split with The Sphere Agency in May. The news come days after a government report slammed the effectiveness of industry self-regulation in curbing, among other

vices, the objectification of women in ads.