The Cinnamon Club tarts up its marketing

The Cinnamon Club, a fashionable Westminster restaurant, has launched a press advertising campaign that features real prostitutes’ calling cards.

This is the second time the restaurant has courted controversy with its advertising. A complaint against an ad for the restaurant was upheld by the Advertising Standards Authority in 2001, for implying cocaine use was acceptable at the restaurant (MW July 19, 2001).

The Cinnamon Club, which also has a private members’ club, is a stone’s throw from Parliament. A request to place its new ad in the House of Commons Handbook was turned down.

The ads, created by M&C Saatchi subsidiary The Immediate Sales Company, have been placed in The Erotic Review and Indobrit. The ad uses the tagline: “Add some spice to your life”.

Cinnamon Club owner Iqbal Wahhab says: “The kind of advertising we do is slightly shocking and tongue-in-cheek. It is about having a sense of humour. And I hope the prostitutes get some business out of it.”

Indobrit publisher Farah Damji says: “We will not be taking Cinnamon Club advertising again.”