PINK Asks Young Women to Show Cards, Thongs

Victoria’s Secret PINK brand is challenging young women to take up cards and take off their jeans with the launch of a strip poker Web experience created by agency Crispin Porter & Bogusky.

The site, at PinkPantyPoker.com, targets women aged 18 to 24 with a first person gaming experience akin to several others the agency has created for clients such as Method and Burger King.

Site visitors go up against a group of five other characters, attractive men and women, in a game of five-card draw. Each round has a loser, and that character must remove an article of clothing. If the user on the end loses, his or her arm extends into the screen and drops a shirt, skirt or pair of pants, as the case may be.

“We’re excited about this one because it brings together game-like qualities, but it’s all about the product. Your goal is to see the product,” said Jeff Benjamin, Crispin’s interactive executive creative director. “It’s a different way of showing a catalog.”

The strip poker experience is intended to spread virally, so PINK hasn’t deployed an ad buy to promote the site’s launch. Benjamin said some banner ads have been created and may be placed around the Web if the client decides it wants to boost traffic. He claims early traffic reports are good, and he expects the site to be a hit with men as well as women.

At the end of the game, an email forward feature sends a message reading, “Supermodel Alessandra is throwing a Panty Poker Party with her friends Chris, Bobby, Theresa and Tatiane. Check it out at [URL]. Hope you’ve got your lucky bikinis on.”

PINK has been a CPB client since mid-2004. The agency has completed some banner advertising for it in the past, but this is the brand’s first “major” online initiative.