Liquor ads often hint at seduction but the Advertising Standards Authority in Britain has banned ads for Saile and Sabga Champagne for being a bit too racy. The image, shown above, which shows a bikini-clad woman emptying the bottle over a man's torso has been deemed a metaphor for seduction. The ad appeared in Ryanair's in-flight magazine and is now forbidden to be used again. I'm not quite sure what makes this ad so much more inflammatory than Eva Herzigova's sexy shots for Dom Perignon.

If you are -- or long to be -- part of the NYC social and moneyed scene, Quest is a must-read. Distributed around NYC, seemingly for free (though it has a $5 cover price), this sometimes snooty publication tracks the party scene with pages of pages of photos of dressed-up socialites and tuxedoed men, snapped by editor David Patrick Columbia at fetes and charity events. The magazine occasionally has a feature of some depth but mainly has light articles. For Luxist readers who love our "Estate of the Day" feature, Quest's Web site is great -- it is in magazine format and includes ads. That means you can scan ads featuring home listings in NYC, Connecticut, the Hamptons and so on, plus see ads for high-end jewelry, handbags, clothing, shoes, art galleries, luxury home accessories and cultural events. Click once on the page you want to view to make it bigger. You also can subscribe (tab at top of home page) if you want the hard copy ($36/one year/12 issues or $47.97/two years/24 issues).

Sharon Stone may have gotten in trouble with Dior over her remarks on China recently, but she can still bring in the gigs. Jeweler Damiani has announced that Stone will be their new face. The new ad campaign for the diamond seller celebrates women throughout history starting with Eve up through Ameilia Earhart and today's modern women. Silvia Damiani, who is a longtime friend of Sharon Stone, introduced the new campaign, which was shot on March 20th by photographer Solve Sundsbo, at a press event in Beverly Hills this week.

Italian designer Roberto Cavalli has chosen four top models to replace Kate Moss (right) in his new Fall/Winter 2008-09 ad campaign. The campaign, to be shot by Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin, is inspired by one of our favorite movies, Luchino Visconti's 1963 Il Gattopardo ("The Leopard), based on the book by Giuseppe Tomasi Di Lampedusa.

The movie, set in Sicily in the 1860s, stars Burt Lancaster as an Italian prince struggling to maintain a dying aristocracy, Alain Delon as his dashing nephew, and the beautiful Claudia Cardinale as Angelica, daughter of a rich former peasant who represents the new social order. Cavalli has chosen models Isabeli Fontana, Angela Lindvall, Raquel Zimmerman and Frankie Rayder to play the parts of Cardinale and the movie's other beauties in the ads.

"I've always been aesthetically fascinated by this film," Cavalli tells Women's Wear Daily. "I also find Il Gattopardo, a story that's based on the idea that 'the more it changes, the more it stays the same,' a good metaphor for fashion. In the campaign, the heroine - a sort of new Angelica - dances in the wilderness while a fire rages in the background; she represents the force of everything that is new, yet in the end she dresses like a romantic debutante." We think Fontana for one is perfectly cast as she bears an uncanny resemblance to Cardinale.

Nearly every antique store you might wander into on a weekend adventure has an old advertising sign or two but few can boast a collection as impressive as the one put together by Jim Cate. For years, Cate, an avid collector, operated a museum of country store and advertising items inside The Penny Candy Store in downtown Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. Cate's collection of advertising signs, cigar store Indians and country store memorabilia will be auctioned off along with similar items from other estates on April 20-22 at the Washtenaw Farm Council Grounds in Ann Arbor, Michigan by Showtime Auction Services. Tin signs from Coca-Cola and Kelly Tires are expected to sell in the $10,000 range and the cigar store Indians could sell for $30,000 to $50,000. A rare cigar tip cutter from the 1890s could go for up $50,000.

[via Cigar Cyclopedia]

Virgin America, an airline that is part of the Virgin empire, has just introduced some new advertising-sponsored in-flight consoles as a way to keep costs down on the lower fare airline. With the ad-supported system, dubbed "Red", travelers can get access to in-cabin text messaging, movies on demand, satellite TV and a variety of games and audio channels. The system also "provides AC power and wireless connectivity for travelers with laptops," making Virgin America sound much more convenient for business travelers who might otherwise avoid "budget" airlines because they're difficult to work on.

Lucky Strike has been a popular cigarette brand since its founding in 1871, but to boost the popularity of the brand, BAT International has launched an advertising tour centered around a $100,000 pack of cigarettes that will be displayed at major international airports, where many duty-free cigarettes are purchased, for the remainder of the year. The pack is made of 18-ct white gold and features both a large ruby and a large diamond on the front. The rest of the package bears the traditional markings of retail packages, including a large health warning. The pack can be seen in Frankfurt in September, in Düsseldorf in November and Munich in December.

[via Born Rich]

Jaguar is giving away free cars - but only to people who can already afford them and live the "right" lifestyle, the "Gorgeous" lifestyle, as part of their Gorgeous marketing campaign. The luxury car maker is planting brand new $80,000 Jaguar XKs in New York (in the hands of Nico Bossi, one of the city's "beautiful people"), Los Angeles (with skateboarder Reese Forbes), Dallas, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Denver and Chicago., in the hopes that lifestyle envy will prompt more potential buyers to consider the car and the brand.

It's reality advertising because, though you see thousands of cars each day, this is the one that is put there with the sole purpose of being seen. The company sought out people who already did things that people aspire to do and go places where people aspire to go. Jaguar says that the campaign is "about people seeing Nico and the car and wanting to be part of that."  Nico doesn't reveal that he doesn't own the car to people who ask, but is happy to rattle off the price and specifications of the vehicle.

Jaguar is hoping that seeing the car in all the right places will convince younger buyers that Jags are not just for their parents.

[via the Wall Street Journal]

A while ago we looked at the rumor that Lindsay Lohan would follow in the footsteps of Uma Thurman, Jennifer Lopez and Gisele Bundchen and pose with a  Louis Vuitton bag but alas it is not to be. Instead, assaultive and glamorous model Naomi Campbell will be the next face of Louis. Marc Jacobs wanted Lohan on the campaign but the powers that be at LVMH thought the freckled teen was "too American" for their global brand.

Scent strips in magazines are nothing new but a scent strip for a hotel? I was reading my New Yorker this morning when I came across the Westin White Tea scent ad. The ads only say "White tea. The calming new scent of Westin." Curious, I opened the strip. In comparison to other scents that come billowing out of those tiny flaps of paper, this one is mild, more like laundry detergent than white tea. According to Brandweek, the ads will pop up in The New Yorker, Wired, Vanity Fair, Real Simple and Gourmet. It's an interesting move away from ads that usually focus on what the hotel looks like rather than what it smells like but I'm not sure that the pallid white tea scent is memorable enough to haunt people into choosing a Westin hotel.