A young man travels with a female companion in a semi-private train compartment they share with strangers including a single gal.The jolts and shocks of train travel are too much to handle for the hard-working young man, who is tormented by a headache and doesn't believe in suffering in silence. His plight brings out the Florence Nightingale in his fellow passenger.The young lady catches him out of his wife/girlfriend's sight and relieves him of his pain with her handy Amrutranjan roll-on balm. She applies it vigorously, as he purrs and moans in ecstasy.When comes time for lights-out, the young man insists his lady-friend occupy top berth so he can take the bottom, right across from Florence, and spend the rest of the night expressing his gratitude. And they all live happily ever after.Well, not really, that would be absurd. "Extra marital pain relief, is that what they are talking about?" asks a baffled Bobby Pawar , chief creative officer, JWT India "These are the sort of bad jokes that drunken people tell each other. They shouldn't be filmed." Too late! Every bit is on film and this, a fairly recent campaign from 118-year-old health-care brand Amrutanjan. Combine it with the ‘What An Ass’ and ‘Don't Tag Me’ from Flying Machine and the online driven ‘Don’t stare at my T_ _s’ campaign for Fastrack, and we are prompted to resurrect the question "does sex sell in advertising?" The fact that it does has already impressed itself with sickening clarity on human kind.But this tale isn't about Indian advertising surviving puberty and emerging at the other end wiser and worldlier. It seems the hormones are wreaking havoc still. Naturally, now we must ask how much is too much and, perhaps, more importantly, should commercials have helpful viewer appropriate cues too? "Warning: Do not watch if parents in the vicinity. Rated A - Awkward" (it's just a thought).Indeed categories such as deodorants (commercials for brands like Axe Set Wet Zatak and Wild Stone , for instance, are infamous), innerwear (the Amul Macho 'Toing' ad got many knickers in a twist), contraceptives and condoms ( Kamasutra and more recently a global campaign for Moods titled 'Your time, your place'), among others, have explored this genre of creative to its fullest.However, over the years, more marketers across categories, and not just the usual suspects, are negotiating the precincts of what is acceptable — sexual innuendos, male fantasies, female fantasies, skin, more skin, all of the above.According to Mythili Chandrasekar, senior VP and executive planning director, JWT, "Sexuality and innuendo work in any category that is part of sexual 'preparation'." This explanation accounts for lingerie, personal products, cosmetics, contraceptives, et cetera. "In fact 'makes me feel sexually attractive' becomes the key pay off. If sensuality is part of a food product too, it works," says Chandrasekar.Consider for instance American reality TV star Kim Kardashian devouring a salad. Clearly, salads can be sexy. But, not always! For instance, who would have thought an ad for a beverage brand like Mirinda could be naughty? We didn't. But that was before we saw the latest commercial titled 'caught in the act' for Pepsi's orange coloured drink (though the result was more distressing than desirable.)The ad is an accumulation of shots featuring people of all sorts emerging from rooms, dark corners and park benches dishevelled and gasping. Of course, they weren't on a marathon run or on the run from a posse of police armed with stout clubs, silly. The lot was left breathless because they couldn't stop drinking the beverage till the bottle was empty. Then there are others who are more brazen beasts.Watch and lifestyle brand Fastrack had a young lady slowly and patiently undressing herself while she waited for her boyfriend (at least we think that was the nature of that relationship) to hang up the telephone and hook up with her. Alas, it was clear the conversation was more engaging. This particular series, starring Genelia and cricketer Virat Kohli, continues with just a few venue changes — there's the time in the ATM booth and on another occasion in a cockpit.At 30,000 feet she's in for a spot of luck. And then there's Britannia's Bourbon biscuit that was so irresistible for another young lady that she made actress Meg Ryan's 'faking an orgasm in Katz's Deli' scene from the 1989 hit film When Harry Met Sally seem like a Disney clip. Alright, so maybe that's a bit of a stretch; the fully-clothed Ryan was, after all, rather convincing.But it wasn't the first time Britannia exposed its wanton side for general viewing. In 2009 after a long hiatus the company launched a series of print ads for Bourbon. One ad ran with the line: ‘When In Rome, Do The Romans’. That's right, no typo that one. It received positive reviews generally. But medium does matter and sex in television commercials make ads cringe-worthy more often than not.Furthermore, in cases where sexual provocation and sleaze are not the category-code, so to speak, a spot can quickly turn into "a one-night stand with a brand" as Scarecrow's co-founder Manish Bhatt puts it, rather eloquently. True we are all sexual creatures and are genetically coded, designed if you will, to respond to subliminal or explicit sexual stimuli.However, when it comes to advertising, is using sex to sell your wares strategically right for brands where sex is not inherent in the brand vocabulary, in any measure?Consider Amrutanjan. If you aren't familiar with the yellow ointment in the little bottle that will annihilate your aches and pains, ask your parents, or even your grandparents, they'll know. (Just remember our fair ad warning at the start.) Sambhu P Sivalenka, chairman & MD, Amrutanjan Health Care, tells us the brand is known and trusted, "but in today's rapidly changing digital era, the brand was slowly losing equity with the young generation."Two years ago the company brought on board Bangalore-based Shining Consulting to give the brand a lot more than just a facelift. According to Shombit Sengupta, founder, Shining Consulting, "We identified the brand expression for consumer-connect to be a 35-year-old married, independent woman with bold character, substance and depth. She will always have a contemporary outlook because she is in tune with the trend. You can depend on her because she is mature and experienced.Her character in micro detail would be married, confident, independent, contemporary, graceful, and reliable and a driver of society." She's hard to miss too. There's the 35-year-old bhabhi who rescues her medical student brother-in-law with a relaxation balm. As soon as he's free of his pain, she leaves. Although she desires none of this aloofness, "I have to rush," she insists, hesitantly."Your brother will return any moment." No good deed goes unpunished after all. In another spot, a 35-year-old dominatrix boss has a change of heart when she notices her minion dealing with a frozen shoulder and its spawn, excruciating pain. She volunteers to take him home, pops by the kirana store to buy some body-pain cream, and delivers him to his wife.Later that night, he calls Ms Boss to do the only gentlemanly thing left to — ask her to dinner, a gesture of deep gratitude.At the other end a lustful voice replies, "Call me Sonia from now on." One look at the over century-old healthcare brand's commercials and the others on the sleazelist will look like animated shorts suitable for all ages. They've taken every trick in the book — love affairs with office mates, clandestine meetings, willing madams, eager bhabhis and more — and hurl the tome at us through the television."Sometimes, from a creative point of view, sex in advertising is a shortcut one ought not to use," says Bhatt of Scarecrow. But then again, as the country's Sheilas and Munnis flaunt their jawanis for desi boyz and girlz, at "150 a pop and item-numbers can get raunchier and pictures dirtier, then why, pray, should desi brands, old and new, lag behind? Or, perhaps, it is time for a cold shower.