In the summer, sanitary ware manufacturer Toto Ltd., best known for its Washlet bidet toilets, launched an aggressive advertising blitz in the United States to woo Americans who have long shied away from such a product as strange, unnecessary — and a little bit embarrassing.
Toto set up a billboard ad in Times Square in New York, splashing the images of six naked people seen from behind, with their buttocks covered with a wide white bar. The company also launched a Web site titled Clean is Happy, featuring the image of naked buttocks with smiley faces.
In fact, Toto's original billboard ad would have featured naked buttocks, but it decided to run the covered version after a local church complained. Toto keeps the original naked "happy buttocks" image in its online ad.