Advertising Mistake Makes Boise Bagels Very Sexy

By J. Gelband, 3-09-07

Sex sells. Even if it is unintentional.

Boise restaurant River City Bagels found out this concept this week when an ad in the Boise Weekly caused a public stir and, consequently, long lines at the downtown shop.

The small ad on the side of an inside page features a stack of fresh bagels and reads, “Our bagels are like vaginas: What’s not to love?”

Sure, it sounds like a very direct slogan applying the “sex sells” ploy, but it wasn’t supposed to be so arbitrary; there was an accidental oversight that neither owner Jodi Kummermehr nor the ad designer nor the Boise Weekly noticed before it appeared in thousands of copies of the free alternative weekly.

“It is Vagina Monologues (the play) season, and we sponsor the event every year,” said Kummermehr. “The ad was supposed to say, ‘Proud sponsor of the Vagina Monologues,’ so it all made sense, but we didn’t catch it.”

Kummermehr isn’t upset or embarrassed though; traffic through the store has increased significantly and everyone wants to talk about the ad.

“It has been ridiculous,” said Rachel, a River City Bagels employee. “I got a call from someone in Virginia about it and a company in Santa Barbara wants to sell T-shirts with the slogan.”

Rachel also said that the restaurant’s bagel dog, a hot dog wrapped in a bagel-dough bun, has been the topic of dirty conversation since the ad appeared on Wednesday.

At least one confirmed person has sent the ad to Jay Leno for his weekly “Headlines” bit that features funny authentic ads from newspapers across the country.
A spot on a national show is likely to attract even more potential customers, but not everyone is thrilled about the ad.

Several women have come into the place to say they are offended. And one customer told manager Sri Galindo that some boys were suspended from school for talking about the ad in class. “I think it’s really funny,” said Galindo. “The only thing I’d feel bad about is if it really offended people, but they learned that word in health class!”

Even though most people agree with Galindo that the ad is funny, and the mistake makes it even funnier, it is a good thing River City Bagels didn’t go with one of the other ads designed for the series. “I used an ad agency to come up with advertising layouts and some of them were really risky,” said Kummermehr. “One had a bagel with the hole censored...one said, ‘More interesting than a vagina, perhaps better tasting.’ We’re not going there. Maybe in LA but not in Boise.”